Open AccessLarge‐vessel arteritis associated with chronic active Epstein‐Barr virus infection
Author(s) -
Murakami Kazuhiro,
Ohsawa Masahiko,
Hu ShuXin,
Kanno Hiroyuki,
Aozasa Katsuyuki,
Nose Masato
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
arthritis & rheumatism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1529-0131
pISSN - 0004-3591
DOI - 10.1002/1529-0131(199802)41:2<369::aid-art22>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - vasa vasorum , medicine , arteritis , pathology , autopsy , vasculitis , coronary arteries , giant cell arteritis , abdominal aorta , aorta , artery , disease
This report describes an autopsy case of large‐vessel arteritis associated with chronic active Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) infection in a 10‐year‐old Japanese girl. All of the 3 main coronary arteries, bilateral common carotid and subclavian arteries, abdominal aorta and its major branches, and bilateral common iliac arteries were involved, and all showed aneurysmal dilation of the lumens. Histopathologic examination revealed mesoarteritis characterized by moth‐eaten‐appearing destruction of the medial elastic laminae, with T lymphocyte infiltration around the vasa vasorum and severe intimal thickening. The EBV DNA genome was detected in the diseased aortic tissue by polymerase chain reaction, and in the infiltrating lymphocytes by in situ hybridization. The clinical symptoms and histopathologic manifestations of the arterial lesions in this patient were obviously different from those of Kawasaki disease and Takayasu arteritis, and the arteritis was considered to be associated with the EBV infection.