LOCALIZED SCLERODERMA AFTER INFECTION WITH EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS

Over a period of three years (1989-1992) five children suffering from localized scleroderma were seen at the Departement of Pediatrics of th e University of Trieste. Evidence of a previous infectious mononucleos is (IM) was present in four out of five patients. The clinical history of these four children is reported. The association between the appea rance of scleroderma and a previous viral infection is not surprising. However, in the pediatric literature there is only one case of progre ssive systemic sclerosis (PSS) developing in a 15-month-old girl less than one month after she contracted IM. The presence of shared epitope s between an Epstein-Barr virus protein, BOLF1, and the hypervariable region of HLA associated with the pauciarticular form of JCA, recently reported, could provide a key to the pathogenesis of other collagen d iseases such as scleroderma.