CAEBV is diagnosed if the patient has:
(1) a chronic illness
(2) at least 1 criterion in each of 3 categories
(3) exclusion of any other possible explanation. Exclusion can be very important since it depends on how diligent the investigation has been and what has been considered.
Clinical category - one or more of the following:
(1) prolonged or intermittent fever
(2) lymphadenopathy
(3) hepatosplenomegaly
(4) malaise
Hematologic category - one or more of the following:
(1) anemia
(2) thrombocytopenia
(3) lymphocytosis or lymphocytopenia
(4) neutropenia
(5) polyclonal gammopathy
Some would include development of a lymphoproliferative disorder as one of the hematologic criteria.
Virological category - one or more of the following:
(1) elevated EBV-specific antibody titers (viral capsid and/or early antigen)
(2) detection of EBV genome in affected tissue
