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
 * 2016, Incidence of Infectious Mononucleosis in Universities and U.S. Military Settings (FULL TEXT) "Abstract - Objective: The reported incidence rates for Infectious Mononucleosis (IM) within universities and military settings vary widely from study to study. Several factors may have contributed to the discrepancy in these incidence rates include misdiagnosis, ambiguity in the reported sample populations, and number of students who visited and were diagnosed at their campus's health service centers. The current review examines previously reported literature on the incidence rate in universities and military settings of infectious mononucleosis taking into account these possible confounding factors. Methods: Articles examined for the literature review were selected by searching several databases within Google Scholar and PubMed. Results: Variance in the incidence rates could be due to differences in the populations studied, true geographic or epidemiologic variation or inconsistent number of students who visited and were diagnosed at their campus's health service centers."
 * 2012, Cytokine expression profiles of immune imbalance in post-mononucleosis chronic fatigue
 * 2012, Orthostatic Tolerance Testing in a Prospective Cohort of Adolescents With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Recovered Controls Following Infectious Mononucleosis "Abstract - Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a complex condition responsible for marked functional impairment. The authors recently reported that 6 months following acute infectious mononucleosis (IM), 13%, of adolescents met criteria for CFS. The authors’ objective was to assess standing orthostatic tolerance (SOT) in adolescents with CFS and in controls 6 months following IM. In all, 36 of 39 adolescents diagnosed with CFS 6 months following IM and 43 of 50 recovered controls had SOT testing (SOTT) performed. χ2 Analysis was performed to study the relationships between SOTT and the diagnosis of CFS. Adolescents diagnosed with CFS and recovered controls did not differ significantly in age, weight, or body mass index. The authors found that 9 of 36 adolescents with CFS (25%) versus 9 of 43 recovered controls (21%) had an abnormal SOTT, which was not a statistically significant difference. Adolescents who meet criteria for CFS 6 months following IM do not have, as a group, more standing orthostatic intolerance than recovered controls."
 * 2006, Prevalence of Pediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in a Community-Based Sample"Abstract - Background: This study evaluated the prevalence of [[chronic fatigue syndrome[[ (CFS) among children and adolescents (ages 5 to 17) in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse community population. Objectives: This investigation attempted to address limitations of previous studies by using a community-based sample and thoroughly evaluating each participant (i.e., using medical and psychological evaluations) to determine a proper diagnosis of CFS. Methods: A community-based sample of children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 were screened for symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome by telephone. Those reported to suffer from CFS-like symptoms were given medical and psychological evaluations to allow a determination of the CFS diagnosis. Results: The overall prevalence rate for the sample was 60 per 100,000 or .06%. The prevalence for the adolescents (aged 13 to 17) was 181 per 100,000 or .181%. Conclusions: The current prevalence estimate for CFS in adolescents is higher than previous estimates. CFS was more common in adolescents than pre-pubescent children. |undefined"

Clinic location

 * 2300 N Childrens Plz
 * Bot 20
 * Chicago, IL 60614

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