PERSISTENCE OF VARICELLA-ZOSTER VIRUS-DNA IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA

Citation
R. Mahalingam et al., PERSISTENCE OF VARICELLA-ZOSTER VIRUS-DNA IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA, Journal of neurovirology, 1(1), 1995, pp. 130-133
Citations number
16
Categorie Soggetti
Neurosciences,Virology
Journal title
ISSN journal
13550284
Volume
1
Issue
1
Year of publication
1995
Pages
130 - 133
Database
ISI
SICI code
1355-0284(1995)1:1<130:POVVIE>2.0.ZU;2-B
Abstract
The most common complication of tester in the elderly is postherpetic neuralgia, operationally defined as pain persisting longer than 1-2 mo nths after rash. The cause of postherpetic neuralgia is unknown. Using polymerase chain reaction, we detected varicella tester virus DNA in blood mononuclear cells from 11 of 51 postherpetic neuralgia patients, but not in any of 19 tester patients without postherpetic neuralgia, or in any of 11 elderly individuals without a history of tester. Blood mononuclear cells from nine of 27 serially-bled postherpetic neuralgi a patients were positive for varicella tester virus DNA; six were posi tive once, and three patients were positive more than once. Our result s indicated that postherpetic neuralgia may be related to persistence of varicella tester virus.