EBV LAB RESULTS

[Lieberman01]

Hi everyone. My daughter has been sick for a few months now. In the past She has had recurrent tonsillities and step throat. She had her tonsils removed at the end of May 2012 and has still been sick sense then.  She had a horrible recovery from the tonsillectomy and was in excruciating pain for about four weeks.  Since then she has had fevers, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. She has had four tests for mono in the last six months and all are negative. I asked her doctor to test her for ebv and although he didn't feel it was necessary he agreed to do it. Her results came back but the doctor is out for the week.  I am hoping you all can help me understand what the results mean?

                            Your.                    Standard
Component.         Results                 Range
EBV VCAIGG         8.1                      <=0.8  
EBV VCAIGM   0.1                      <=0.8  
EBV NA IGG         6.10                      <=0.8  
EBV INTERPRETATION    Reactive

[mkh9]

You are quite welcome. I hope she recovers soon!
mkh9

[Lieberman01]

Thank you that makes me feel so much better. She is 18 and lived in college dorms last year. Her roommate had mono so I was thinking she may have had it and just tested negative for mono. Thank you for your input!

[mkh9]

Hi, sorry your daughter has been ill. How old is your daughter? If she is an adult then it takes a lot longer to recover than a child from the tonsil removal. A lot of adults that have their tonsils removed have terrible pain and bleeding. Since her mono test was negative and her EBV IGG is positive and IgM negative and the IgG NA is positive she has had a past infection not current. Once you develop antibiodies to any infection including EBV you will have immunity for life. She can also pass it onto others. Almost all adults have antibodies for past infection of EBV. So even though it says reactive it just means she does have the antibody to protect her from another infection. if her IgM was positive or her EBV NA was negative then she would have current disease. I think since your tonsils are part of your immune system like your appendix is then she may be temporarily low in immunity and will come back to normal soon. She may have contracted another virus. Hope this helps.