Ben Katz

Ben Z. Katz, MD is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and a Professor at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. His research interests include the pathophysiology of viral infections in immunocompromised vs. normal hosts, post-[Epstein-Barr virus]] (chronic) fatigue syndrome, chronic granulomatous disease and HIV.

Notable studies

• 2017, A Prospective Study of Infectious Mononucleosis in College Students

  "Abstract - Background: The present study aims to prospectively investigate possible biological and psychological factors present in college students who will go on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) following Infectious Mononucleosis (IM). Identification of risk factors predisposing patients towards developing CFS may help to understand the underlying mechanisms and ultimately prevent its occurrence. Our study is enrolling healthy college students over the age of 18. Enrollment began in March of 2013 and is ongoing. Methods: Biological and psychological data are collected when students are well (Stage 1), when they develop IM (Stage 2), and approximately 6 months after IM diagnosis (Stage 3). Results: Two case studies demonstrate the progression of student symptomology across all three stages. Conclusion: The Case Studies presented illustrate the usefulness of a prospective research design that tracks healthy."

• 2016, Tracking post-infectious fatigue in clinic using routine Lab tests.

  ABSTRACT:"BACKGROUND: While biomarkers for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are beginning to emerge they typically require a highly specialized clinical laboratory. We hypothesized that subsets of commonly measured laboratory markers used in combination could support the diagnosis of post-infectious CFS (PI-CFS) in adolescents following infectious mononucleosis (IM) and help determine who might develop persistence of symptoms. METHODS: Routine clinical laboratory markers were collected prospectively in 301 mono-spot positive adolescents, 4 % of whom developed CFS (n = 13). At 6, 12, and 24 months post-diagnosis with IM, 59 standard tests were performed including metabolic profiling, liver enzyme panel, hormone profiles, complete blood count (CBC), differential white blood count (WBC), salivary cortisol, and urinalysis....RESULTS: Lower ACTH levels at 6 months post-IM diagnosis were highly predictive of CFS (AUC p = 0.02). ACTH levels in CFS overlapped with healthy controls at 12 months, but again showed a trend towards a deficiency at 24 months. Conversely, estradiol levels depart significantly from normal at 12 months only to recover at 24 months (AUC p = 0.02). Finally, relative neutrophil count showed a significant departure from normal at 24 months in CFS (AUC p = 0.01). Expression of these markers evolved differently over time between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest that serial assessment of stress and sex hormones as well as the relative proportion of innate immune cells measured using standard clinical laboratory tests may support the diagnosis of PI-CFS in adolescents with IM."

• 2016, Illness progression in chronic fatigue syndrome: a shifting immune baseline
• 2012, Cytokine expression profiles of immune imbalance in post-mononucleosis chronic fatigue

Clinic location

2300 N Childrens Plz

Bot 20

Chicago, IL 60614

Learn more

• Faculty bio page

enzyme a substance produced by a living organism which acts as a catalyst to bring about a specific biochemical reaction.

cytokine any class of immunoregulatory proteins secreted by cells, especially immune cells. Cytokines are small proteins important in cell signaling that modulate the immune system. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)