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John H. Dirckx, MD
Gosiger Memorial Health Center Dayton, Ohio

JAMA. 1973;226(1):78-79.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The history of infectious mononucleosis, as a subject of medical writing, is an interesting and illuminating study; I recommend it to any clinician or researcher who may at any future time be tempted to contribute to the medical literature on this topic.

It is now 40 years since the development of the heterophil agglutination test led to the formulation of the classic triad of clinical, hematologic, and serologic criteria for the diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis. It was postulated then, and the succeeding years have afforded abundant proof, that none of these criteria is by itself pathognomonic.

The clinical picture of infectious mononucleosis is readily confused with that of toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus disease, infectious hepatitis, and some of the enteroviral syndromes. Absolute and relative lymphocytosis, with atypical cells, may occur in malaria, infectious hepatitis, and various malignancies of the hematopoietic-reticuloendothelial system. Atypical cells without lymphocytosis have no diagnostic value . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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