Table 1.

Pair-wise comparison of geometric mean level and prevalence of immune markers among 102 persons uninfected with HTLV-I from Japan and Jamaica

	Population
Immune marker	Japan	Jamaica	p-value
Anti-EBNA1, GMT†	71	27	0.005
Anti-EBNA2, GMT†	9	7	0.41
Anti-VCA, GMT†	2043	2120	0.87
Anti-EA seropositivity, %‡	82.0	72.6	0.18
Low EBNA1:EBNA2 ratio, %‡§	13.3	31.9	0.02
CRP, μg/mL†*	0.43	1.1	0.0004
sIL2R, pg/mL†	623	477	0.0008
sCD30, U/mL†	46	34	0.0001
Neopterin, nmol/L†	5.6	5.6	0.94
Total IgE, ng/mL†*	154	146	0.82

Abbreviations: EBNA1, Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen type 1; GMT, geometric mean titer; EBNA2, Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen type 2; VCA, viral capsid antigen; EA, early antigen; CRP, C-reactive protein; sIL2R, soluble IL-2 receptor-α; sCD30, soluble CD30; IgE, immunoglobulin E.

^†Reciprocal of the geometric mean titer, or geometric mean level, from mixed-effects linear regression analyses adjusted for age (continuous, in years), sex, and year of sample collection (continuous); p-values were obtained from the t-test and reflect covariate adjustment.

^‡P-values were obtained from the Mantel-Haenszel test, adjusted for age (<60 v. 60+ years), sex, and year of sample collection (1987-1989 v. 1990-1993).

^§A low EBNA1:EBNA2 ratio is a ratio of anti-EBNA1 to anti-EBNA2 titers ≤1.0.

^*Values below assay detection level are assigned a value of one-half the assay detection limit and included in the estimation of the geometric mean.