EBV symptoms??

HI,

does anyone know if muscle twitching/fatigue/spasms, pressure headaches and loss of balance could be caused by active Epstein-Bar virus?? I got checked by a neurologist and he didn't find anything serious. However, my EBV antibodies showed up really high (in a convalescent level).

Thanks!

[Caliber2005]

Hi Kickstart,
I think your doctor is right in telling that both incidents are independent of each other.
Are you on multivitamins? If you are not taking multivitamin, then start taking one after prescription from your doctor.
Bye.

[Joyce K Lee, MD]

Dear kickstar 1,

Thank you for submitting your question.
I will answer your concerns to the best of my abilities, but please be informed that I am unable to offer a diagnosis based on your history and list of symptoms pertaining to your family member.
I am limited in not having the opportunity to perform a full neurologic examination on your family member, nor am I able to review the pertinent imaging.
This is solely for educational purposes and should in no way be a substitute for a formal evaluation by a certified physician.

To begin, you bring up a very interesting question.

I am assuming that EBV titers were elevated in your serum and not cerebrospinal fluid.

Please allow me to offer a brief educational segment on the clinical significance of elevated serum (blood) EBV titers.
The information is obtained from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website.

Epstein-Barr virus, frequently referred to as EBV, is a member of the herpesvirus family and one of the most common human viruses. The virus occurs worldwide, and most people become infected with EBV sometime during their lives. In the United States, as many as 95% of adults between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected. Infants become susceptible to EBV as soon as maternal antibody protection (present at birth) disappears. Many children become infected with EBV, and these infections usually cause no symptoms or are indistinguishable from the other mild, brief illnesses of childhood. In the United States and in other developed countries, many persons are not infected with EBV in their childhood years. When infection with EBV occurs during adolescence or young adulthood, it causes infectious mononucleosis 35% to 50% of the time.

Laboratory tests are not always foolproof. For various reasons, false-positive and false-negative results can occur for any test. However, the laboratory tests for EBV are for the most part accurate and specific.

Eleavated EBV antibodies can be trick to sort out.  They are antibodies to the EBV antigen (marker.)
They can be elevated during an active infection (peak usually 2-4 months after symptom onset) and remain elevated life-long!
They can also signify reactivation of the EBV infection.
It is important to mention that this result does not necessarily indicate that a patient's current medical condition is caused by EBV infection. A number of healthy people with no symptoms have antibodies to the EBV early antigen for years after their initial EBV infection.

Please ask your physician to sort out this element of your history -- this can be done by serial lab draws and looking at the degree of elevation.

In terms of neurologic symptoms or disorders associated with elevated EBV antibody titers -- there are some that exist and they cause a myriad of neurologic symptoms.
Please be wary though that EBV has been shown to be associated with a lot of neurological and non-neurological disorders in small and large case studies.

I did a literature search on specific neurologic diseases with elevated EBV titers and generated this list:
*Multiple sclerosis
*Transient global amnesia
*Parkinson's like syndromes
*Various movement disorders (e.g. Opsoclonus–myoclonus syndrome)
*Chronic inflammatory demyelinating process
*GBS (Guillian Barre syndrome)

The list actually goes on....

I know that this is a lot to register.

To put in simply, I suggest you get a formal evaluation by a neurologist to tease out these details.
It may have nothing or conversely, something to do with EBV.

Hope this helps,
Best of luck,
JKL, MD

[kickstar1]

Hi JKL,

thank you for your response; I did went to see a neurologist - actually two of them - and both told me there is nothing seriously wrong with me (also did MRI- it was clear); told me it was stress!!

[kickstar1]

Hi JKL,

sorry hit "enter" by mistake...anyhow this is the rest of my post:
my blood tests however strongly suggest that I do have EBV infection, current one with following numbers:
Early antigen Ig G = 131 (High)
Ab VCA Ig G = 2760 (super high)
Nuclear antigen Ig G = 992 (super high)
- for some reason they didn't do Ig M...

also, my liver ALT = 51 (High)

What would you read out of this??? none of the doctors I went to acknowledge EBV and pretty much just laugh at it...yet I know that that is my problem. Do you know anyone around San Diego area that deals with EBV??

Thank you!