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• A 61-year-old woman with progressive blindness, initially responsive to steroid therapy, was found to have an undifferentiated neoplasm in the cervix uteri. Visual fields demonstrated ring scotomas and the electroretinographic pattern eventually became flat. The interval from onset of visual symptoms to blindness was 19 months. Eye pathologic findings included loss of retinal photoreceptors, a macular hole, and normal optic nerves. Antibodies were demonstrated in the patient's serum to normal fresh human retinal photoreceptors. An autoimmune mechanism may have been responsible for the retinal degeneration in this patient, and such a hypothesis raises questions about (1) autoimmune mechanisms in patients with retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerative diseases and (2) autoimmune mechanisms in other cases of remote effects of carcinoma.

• Susceptibility to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in 1,729 pregnant women was evaluated by screening for EBV antibodies. Fifty-eight subjects (3.4%) had no detectable EBV antibody and were presumably susceptible. Of the 54 women who agreed to participate in this study, none acquired EBV antibody during pregnancy. Our results are in general agreement with some published reports that primary EBV infection during `pregnancy is rare. The role of EBV in congenital infections and perinatal morbidity remains to be defined.(Am J Dis Child 1983;137:466-468)