Demographic, Clinical, and Laboratory Characteristics of Patients with Infectious Mononucleosis

Infectious mononucleosis is a clinical syndrome, particularly in children, adolescents and young adults. Since the clinical and laboratory characteristics of infectious mononucleosis are different according to geographical regions and age groups, studies in different regions can be crucial in improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients with infectious mononucleosis.
This study aimed to investigate the frequency of demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with infectious mononucleosis admitted to 17th shahrivar Hospital of Rasht since 2009 to 2013.
In this descreptive retrospective study, medical records of all patients with a diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis admitted to 17th Shahrivar Hospital of Rasht between 2009 and 2013 were examined. Patents’ demographic, clinical and laboratory findings were collected and analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS software version 18.
In this study, 99 patients with infectious mononucleosis with an average age of 6.19 ± 3.03 were assessed of which 55% were boys. The most common season was summer (35%), followed by spring (30%). The most common chief complaints were fever (88.8%), and pharyngitis (63.3%). The mean duration of disease was 6.19 ± 3.41days. The most common clinical signs were tonsillopharyngitis (98.9%), cervical lymphadenopathy and fever (9/93%).. Leukocytosis was seen in 73.7% of patients and also, lymphocytosis in 62.6%, atypical lymphocytosis in 29.3%, anemia in 13.1% and thrombocytopenia in 6.1%. The high ESR, increased liver enzymes, positive monotest and positive IgM-VCA test were detected in 54.1 %, 46.5 %, 11.1 % and 9/92 % of subjects, respectively. The most common complication was respiratory distress in 5 patients. One patient died with respiratory distress and bleeding.
The most common chief complaints were fever and sore throat; and cervical lymphadenopathy, fever and tonsillopharyngitis were most common signs. It is recommended that differences in the clinical manifestations and their prevalence in our region, be considered in the diagnosis.