Coxsackie virus Group B, Type 4 can cause severe, fatal generalized infection (encephalohepatomyocarditis) in neonates, which can be acquired in utero and exhibits strong tropism for myocardial and neural tissues.
Two fatal cases of generalized infection in the neonatal period with Coxsackie virus, Group B, Type 4 were studied. The virus was present in high titer in the myocardial tissue of both infants and recovered as well from the spinal cord and liver of one. In the latter case, the infection was acquired in utero as indicated by the onset of illness at 13 hours of age and death at 36 hours. Both virus strains, when inoculated into newborn mice, produced acute destruction of the anterior horns of the spinal cord, indistinguishable from that induced by poliomyelitis virus. The clinical and pathologic features in 25 cases of this disorder are reviewed.
Kibrick et al. (1958) studied this question.