Smooth-muscle antibodies and antibodies to cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus in leukaemias and lymphomata.

By means of the indirect immunofluorescent method, smooth-muscle antibodies (SMA) were detected significantly more often in patients with malignant diseases (11.7 per cent) than in normal controls (3.3 per cent) (0.02 p>0.01). SMA occurred in 23.8 per cent of patients with Hodgkin's disease, in 13.3 per cent of patients with myeloproliferative diseases and in 4.7 per cent of patients with lymphoproliferative diseases. Other tissue antibodies were rare and they were found to occur at the same frequency in patients and controls. The occurrence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibodies did not differ significantly in patients and controls and, in both groups, the frequency of these antibodies increased with increasing age. The frequency of Epstein-Barr-virus (EBV) antibodies increased also with increasing age both in patients and controls, but these antibodies were found more frequently in patients than in controls (p = 0.03). No relationship between the occurrence of SMA and viral antibodies was de monstrated. Thus, the development of SMA in patients with malignancies could not be shown to be due to CMV or EBV infection.