Effect of treatment of shell vial cell cultures with dimethyl sulfoxide and dexamethasone for detection of cytomegalovirus.

Urine specimens submitted for the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection were inoculated into shell vials that had been pretreated with a combination of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and dexamethasone (DEX). The results were compared with those for inoculated shell vials which had received no drug treatment. Of 664 specimens, 100 (15%) were positive for cytomegalovirus. Of the 100 strains of cytomegalovirus, 88 (88%) were detected in both DMSO-DEX-treated and untreated shell vials. Of the remaining 12 positive specimens, 6 were detected with untreated shell vials exclusively and 6 were detected with DMSO-DEX-treated shell vials alone (not significant by the sign test). The median number of fluorescent foci was not significantly higher in DMSO-DEX-treated shell vials compared with that in untreated cultures (Wilcoxon signed-rank test; P = 0.1). DMSO-DEX-treated monolayers did not enhance the sensitivity detection of cytomegalovirus in shell vial cell cultures.