OBJECTIVETo improve the clinical diagnostic standard and explore the mechanism of multiple clinical manifestation of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection by studying the primary symptom and related disease spectrum in EBV infected children.

METHODSThe primary symptom, disease spectrum and prognosis of 190 EBV infected children whose serum EBV-VCA-IgM was positive detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTSThe primary symptoms of EBV infection were diverse, the most common primary symptom was fever (66.8%), and followed by cough (14.2%), skin eruption (7.9%), lymphadenopathy (5.3%), eyelid edema (3.2%), pharyngalgia (1.6%), cardiac arrhythmia (1.6%), convulsion (1.6%), arthralgia (1.0%), gross hematuria (0.5%), etc. Most systems and organs were involved in the disease, including liver, spleen, lymph nodes, kidney, heart, lung, bone marrow, brain etc., which made the disease spectrum diverse. The most common disease caused by EBV infection was respiratory tract infection (40.5%), followed by infectious mononucleosis (17.9%), Kawasaki disease (6.3%), idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (5.8%), viral myocarditis (2.6%), viral encephalitis (2.6%), hemophagocytic syndrome (1.6%), rheumatoid arthritis (1.0%), acute lymphadenitis (1.0%), facial neuritis (1.0%), Evans syndrome (0.5%), systemic lupus erythematosus (0.5%), subacute necrotizing lymphadenitis (0.5%), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (0.5%), acute aplastic anemia (0.5%), infantile hepatitis syndrome (0.5%), etc.; 9.5% of patients were ultimately diagnosed as EBV infection after long-term fever, and 10% of patients suffered from mixed infection. The prognosis of EBV infection was different due to involvement of different systems and organs. One patient died of hemophagocytic syndrome.

CONCLUSIONThe systems and organs impaired by EBV infection in children were diverse, and almost all the systems and organs were involved. Pediatricians should comprehensively analyze the clinical data and order corresponding laboratory examinations early to make the correct diagnosis and reduce the misdiagnosis rate and to treat appropriately.