Infectious Mononucleosis, Autoimmunity, and Vasculitis

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Abstract
EPSTEIN-BARR virus (EBV) has a wide range of effects on its human hosts, the best known being infectious mononucleosis (IM). In most instances, this infection is subclinical. The typical features of fever, sore throat, lymph node enlargement, and hepatitis are present in only 25% to 50% of persons with detectable antibody to EBV. Some patients may chronically harbor EBV in their saliva without apparent ill effects.1 There is evidence that many of the clinical features of mononucleosis are mediated by the effects of immune complexes on serum and the various tissues in which they are deposited. Mixed cryoglobulins, cold agglutinins, antinuclear antibodies, and rheumatoid factors have been demonstrated in more than half of the cases surveyed for these abnormalities.2,3As many as one third have been found to be hypocomplementemic early in the course of the illness.4Wands et al5have described a patient with IM

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