LARGE-VESSEL ARTERITIS ASSOCIATED WITH CHRONIC ACTIVE EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS INFECTION

This report describes an autopsy case of large-vessel arteritis associ ated with chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in a 10-ye ar-old Japanese girl. All of the 3 main coronary arteries, bilateral c ommon carotid and subclavian arteries, abdominal aorta and its major b ranches, and bilateral common iliac arteries were involved, and all sh owed aneurysmal dilation of the lumens. Histopathologic examination re vealed 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 clin ical symptoms and histopathologic manifestations of the arterial lesio ns in this patient were obviously different from those of Kawasaki dis ease and Takayasu arteritis, and the arteritis was considered to be as sociated with the EBV infection.