Lupus & antiphospholipid syndrome
Epstein-Barr virus infection and its association with systemic lupus erythematosus: Systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors' conclusion
The majority of healthy subjects were previously exposed to EBV, and the infection could be a potential risk factor in SLE pathogenesis.
Study context
- Population
- SLE patients and healthy controls in studies from PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect28 studies
- Participants
- 2,968 vs 3,926
- Comparison
- SLE vs healthy controls
- SLEn = 2,968
- Healthy controlsn = 3,926reference
- Outcome
- Frequency of EBV DNA or antibody positivity
Methodological detailsNewcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) quality assessment, funnel plots and Egger's regression, Cochrane Q and I2 heterogeneity, sensitivity analysis
- NOS quality assessment
- Funnel plots and Egger's regression
- Cochrane Q and I2 heterogeneity
- Sensitivity analysis
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
EBV DNA or antibody positivity
- SLE patients had a higher positivity rate than healthy controls
- Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections were prevalent in healthy controls
Further pooled results
Sensitivity analysis
- Meta-analysis was robust
Original publication
Epstein-Barr virus infection and its association with systemic lupus erythematosus: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Lupus. Published 29 August 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →