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Erschienen in:
01.01.2010 | Miscellaneous
The correlation between EBV viral load in the palatine tonsils of patients with recurrent tonsillitis and concurrent serum titers of VCA–IgG
Erschienen in: European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology | Ausgabe 1/2010
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Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection usually occurs in early childhood and can persist in palatine tonsil lymphocytes to induce tonsillitis at a later date. We have examined the presence of EBV in palatine tonsils and relationship between EBV-DNA quantity in tonsil tissues and VCA–IgG quantity in autologous sera. Tonsils were obtained from 36 patients, male 20 (55.6%), female 16 (44.4%) (mean age 7.96 ± 6.97 years), who underwent tonsils removal because of recurrent tonsillitis. Tissues were processed for real-time PCR and patient’s sera were assayed to determine VCA–IgG by VCA–IgG ELISA. In 27 out of 36 cases (75%), positive EBV-DNA reaction was found. However, statistical analysis showed no correlation between EBV-DNA quantity and VCA–IgG quantity. We conclude that tonsils of children can be colonized by EBV and that virus may have a direct and indirect role in recurrent tonsillitis and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.