Investigation of Аnti-EA (D) IgG in Patients with Haematological Diseases

Epstein-Barr virus is associated with a wide range of clinically relevant diseases - from infectious mononucleosis to malignant diseases of epithelial and lymphoid origin. The use of serological markers, such as predictors of malignant disease or the detection of viral reactivation, are debatable and unsupported by many studies. The purpose of this study is to establish positivity in the anti-EA (D) IgG test in patients with haematological diseases as a possible marker for viral reactivation. We examined 91 patients with haematological diseases (acute leukemias and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia), of which 54.9% (95% CI: 44.2-65.2) were male. The age range was from 1 to 83 years, with predominance of older patients. Patients were tested for anti-EA (D) IgG with tests of Euroimmun, Germany. The patients positive for anti-EA (D) IgG were also tested for EBV-DNA. We found 13.2% (95% CI: 6.2 -20.1, n = 12) positive for anti-EA (D) IgG. Patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas predominated (23.1% 95%CI: 11.1-39.3, n=9). Two of the patients were in a gray zone. All positive patients were over 60 years of age. The positive anti-EA (D) IgG samples represent a small proportion of the investigated patients with predominance in those with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Based on our previous experience and the results of this study, we consider that the use of anti-EA (D) IgG are not sufficiently reliable in defining EBV reactivation in these patients.