VIROLOGIC STUDIES IN CHILDHOOD CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASES |[lpar]|CTD|[rpar]|

Evidence exists in man and animals that chronic virus infection causes immunologic disease. High virus antibody in a CTD, as found by others for rubella in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), might causally implicate a virus. We compared virus antibodies in childhood CTD (88 JRA, 21 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 21 other CTD) and 130 age, sex and race-matched controls with unrelated diseases. Sera wure coded before measuring IgG, rubella, measles, parainfluenza type 1 (Para-1) and Epstein-Barr (EB) virus antibodies. Results and clinical data were computer-analyzed. Virus antibody incidence was similar in each CTD group vs controls, as were mean antibody liters except for high Para-1 (log2 6.1 vs 5.6, p<.005) and EB (8.6 vs 7.7, p<.005) in JRA, and high measles (8.1 vs 6.1, p < .005) and Para-1 (6.2 vs 5.7, p<.05) in SLE. The EB and measles elevations were partially explained by significant correlations with IgG, which was higher in CTD, 15.8 mg/ml vs 11.9, p<.001. Lack of higher rubella in JRA was not explained by differing natural disease or immunization history. Factors not explaining the elevations were age, race, sex, disease duration and activity, type of JRA, corticosteroid treatment, ESR, latex fixation and ANA tests. Similar virus antibody elevations in adult CTD are also associated with hypergammaglobulinemia and do not necessarily implicate the viruses etiologically.