[Coxsackie B4 and cytomegalovirus in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes]

The purpose of this work is to analyze the potential relationship between infection by Coxsackie and cytomegalovirus and the appearance of insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD). We have assessed complement fixing (CF) antibodies against both viruses in 22 samples of serum from other individuals, among which 11 were patients with a recent diagnosis of IDD--less than 3 months of evolution--(GP) and the remainder 11, supposed healthy individuals with similar age, sex and socioeconomic level (GC). In addition, the presence of anti-pancreatic islets antibodies (ICA) was assessed in 22 serum samples using the indirect immunofluorescence reaction. We have not observed any relationship between the presence of Coxsackie B or CMV antibodies and the appearance of IDD, since although the seroprevalence against CMV was higher in GP than in GC, such difference was not statistically significant. With respect to ICAs, they were only present in the GP samples as expected. Given the small size of the sample, this results are not conclusive and larger series need to be studied.