Rapid detection of human cytomegalovirus viraemia from small volumes of heparinized whole blood.

Rapid detection of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) from blood was performed in parallel using inoculation into human fibroblastic cells of both 500 microliters of whole blood and of buffy coat derived from 9.5 ml of blood. Of the 46 samples tested, 20 were positive for HCMV, 18 when the buffy coat was inoculated (90%) and 17 (85%) when whole blood was used. Fifteen samples were positive by both techniques. Four samples gave discordant results: in three cases, viraemia was detected only by buffy coat assay and in one case only by whole blood assay. These results suggest that HCMV isolation from blood should be performed by inoculating whole blood into cell cultures if only small blood volumes can be collected.