Background: A correlation has been made, often on the base of very scarce evidence, between several ocular clinical pictures and chronic infection due to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
Materials and methods: Serology of the herpes group viruses is part of the investigations performed in uveitis cases without obvious etiology that are examined at our uveitis clinic. We retrospectively studied the clinical files of patients with an elevated EBV serology for the purpose of studying the type of ocular pathology presented.
Results: According to our criteria, 40 patients had an elevated EBV serology. Twenty-nine presented with a polyclonal elevation of antibodies against several viruses of the herpes group. Six showed an increase of anti-EBV antibodies only (2 uveitis cases without specific diagnosis, 2 HLA-B27 positive anterior uveitis cases, 1 pars planitis and 1 anterior uveitis with endothelitis).
Conclusions: If we exclude the ocular pathology occurring during acute primary infection (infections mononucleosis), it is difficult to find some correlation between a clinical picture and EBV infection. Before better diagnostic tools are available, the spectrum of ocular EBV disease will remain conjectural.