The correlation between EBV viral load in the palatine tonsils of patients with recurrent tonsillitis and concurrent serum titers of VCA–IgG.

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection usually occurs in early childhood and can persist in palatine tonsil lymphocytes to induce tonsillitis at a later date. We have examined the presence of EBV in palatine tonsils and relationship between EBV-DNA quantity in tonsil tissues and VCA-IgG quantity in autologous sera. Tonsils were obtained from 36 patients, male 20 (55.6%), female 16 (44.4%) (mean age 7.96 ± 6.97 years), who underwent tonsils removal because of recurrent tonsillitis. Tissues were processed for real-time PCR and patient's sera were assayed to determine VCA-IgG by VCA-IgG ELISA. In 27 out of 36 cases (75%), positive EBV-DNA reaction was found. However, statistical analysis showed no correlation between EBV-DNA quantity and VCA-IgG quantity. We conclude that tonsils of children can be colonized by EBV and that virus may have a direct and indirect role in recurrent tonsillitis and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.