Abstract:

Objective: To study the clinical characteristics of Epstein-Barr virus(EB virus) infection in adult patients by detecting EB virus-associated antibodies, EB virus DNA, blood routine, blood biochemistry and analyzing clinical symptoms. Methods: A total of 67 adults with EB virus infection were enrolled. Patients were divided into two age groups:young and middle-aged group (18-59 years old, 19 cases) and elderly group (60 years old and above, 48 cases), and 49 healthy subjects including 30 young and middle-aged and 19 elderly people were served as aged group controls. The clinical characteristics of EB virus infection were studied and the differences between the two age groups were compared. Results: Fever was the most common presenting symptom (37 cases, 55.2%), and followed by enlarged lymph nodes(13 cases,19.4%), splenomegaly (9 cases,13.4%), liver enlargement(8 cases, 11.9%), pharyngeal congestion (6 cases, 9.0%), and rash (5 cases, 7.5%). Fever (84.2% vs 43.8%), pharyngeal congestion (26.3% vs 2.1%), rash (21.1% vs 2.1%), liver enlargement (31.6 % vs 4.2%) in young and middle-aged patients were more common than in elderly group ( χ² values: 9.012, 7.057, 4.612, 7.295, P<0.05). Two cases in young and middle-aged group had malignant tumor diseases (10.5%), while 2 cases (4.1%) in elderly group had hematopoietic lymphohistiocytosis and 17 cases (34.7 %) had malignant tumor diseases. The constituent ratio of cases with malignant tumor diseases between the two groups was significantly different ( χ²=4.15, P=0.042). The total number of T lymphocytes, count of CD4 ⁺ T lymphocytes, and B lymphocytes in the elderly group were lower than those in the healthy control group (t=4.525, 5.960, 2.999, P all <0.05), while the number of lymphocyte subsets in the young and middle-aged group was not significantly different from that in the healthy controls(P>0.05). There were no statistical differences in liver function indices and levels of EB virus-related antibodies between young and middle-aged and elderly patients(P>0.05). Conclusions: Clinical manifestations of EB virus infection in adults are varied. The symptoms of acute infection are more common in young and middle-aged patients than in the elderly patients. The cellular immunity and humoral immunity are decreased in elderly patients, and the constituent ratio of cases with EB virus-related tumors is high.

Key words: Epstein-Barr virus infection, Laboratory tests, Clinical features, Adults