title: Involvement of adenovirus in clinical mononucleosis-like syndromes in young children.
abstract: Although Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) commonly causes infectious mononucleosis (IM) or IM-like syndromes, other agents can be implicated. In this study, viral and parasitic screening was performed to determine the etiological agent of pediatric IM-like syndromes in 38 children. Adenovirus was the agent most frequently detected (47.3%), followed by EBV (31.5%) and cytomegalovirus (2.6%). Although the statistically significant difference between viral detection rates observed in patients who fulfilled clinical and hematological criteria and detection rates in those who presented clinical symptoms only (91.6% vs. 64.3%) indicates that hematological abnormalities are common in viral IM-like syndromes, the existence of syndromes of viral etiology without hematological criteria cannot be discarded. A further analysis showed an absence of lymphocytosis in adenovirus infections as well as a low number (14.3%) of EBV infections associated with increased neutrophils. These data suggest the usefulness of appropriate virological techniques for the detection of adenovirus in pediatric IM-like syndromes.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Microbiología I, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Celestino Villamil s/n, 33006 Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melón
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Iglesias
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Boga
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Fanjul
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Méndez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Oña
mesh_terms: D000258:Adenovirus Infections, Human / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000821:virology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male