مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Evaluation of enzyme-linked fluorescent assay results for determining Epstein-Barr virus serology at Ege University Hospital

Abstract :

Introduction: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) causes infectious mononucleosis, chronic infection, some malignancies, lypmhomas in immunsupresive patients and lymphoproliferative diseases in post transplantation patients. The vast majority of the cases attending for EBV diagnosis in our laboratory; come with acute infection diagnosis or for serological screening. Few cases with atypical profiles for EBV still indicate doubtful results. Materials and Methods: Between 01.01.2011-01.09.2013 (32 months), 7363 serum samples were included in the study. Serum samples were tested for EBV VCA IgM, VCA/EA IgG ve EBNA-1 IgG antibodies with bioMérieux™ VIDAS® automated enzyme-linked fluorescent assay instrument (ELFA). Results: A total number of 7363 serum samples were analysed by age groups. Among these groups; 3567 patients were women and 3796 were men with the mean age of 26.77 years (the median value 20 years). Our findings were as follows: 70.1% past infection, 13.1% not infected with EBV, 1.5% acute infection, 5.1% [EBV VCA IgM negative, VCA/EA IgG positive, EBNA-1 IgG negative], 2.7% [EBV VCA IgM negative, VCA/EA IgG negative, EBNA-1 IgG positive], 1.6% [EBV VCA IgM positive, VCA/EA IgG positive, EBNA1 IgG positive] and 5.6% other atypical profiles.Conclusion: In this study 81% of the patients were seropositive for EBV and this result was coherent with the previous results in our population. The ratio for atypical profiles that need to be explained was 15%. If there is a doubt in evaluation of EBV diagnosis, both clinical and serological follow up must be done. Because of its suitability of automation and objectivity of the results at EBV serological diagnosis, ELFA can be preffered by laboratories accepting large numbers of serum samples