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Increased risk of multiple sclerosis after late Epstein‐Barr virus infection*: A historical prospective study *
Author(s) -
Haahr S.,
KochHenriksen N.,
MøllerLarsen A.,
Eriksen L. S.,
Andersen H. M. K.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1997.tb08153.x
Subject(s) - mononucleosis , danish , multiple sclerosis , medicine , population , disease , prospective cohort study , immunology , virus , pediatrics , environmental health , linguistics , philosophy
The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between infectious mononucleosis (IM) and multiple sclerosis (MS). In a historical prospective study we used records from the Danish State Serum Institute in which heterophile antibody tests (HA) for infectious mononucleosis were performed for all Danish patients for a number of years. Included in the analysis were 6853 HA‐positive people and 12,886 HA‐negative people. A search for the presence of these people in the nationwide Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry (DMSR) was performed. Among the HA‐positive people 16 cases of MS were found. The expected number for a matched Danish population was 5.70, the risk ratio being 2.81. No cases had developed MS before contracting infectious mononucleosis. Among the HA‐negative people the expected number of MS patients were found. Although Epstein‐Barr virus is not suggested in itself to be the cause of multiple sclerosis, a hypothesis is put forward that it is a cofactor in the pathogenesis of this disease.