Herpes zoster (shingles) is caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus that has lain dormant in the dorsal root ganglion after primary infection (as chickenpox). It affects the sensory ganglia and their areas of innervation, and is characterised by pain in the distribution of the affected nerve, and crops of clustered vesicles over the area. Pain may occur days before rash onset, or n...

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a herpesvirus that causes two clinically distinct forms of disease, varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles). Primary VZV infection results in characteristic diffuse vesicular rash of chickenpox. Although vaccination substantially attenuates disease manifestations, significant complications such as secondary soft tissue infection, encephalitis, and pne...

In nine out of 11 patients with herpes zoster and neurological symptoms varicella-zoster antigen was demonstrated in CSF cells by indirect immunofluorescent staining. Cerebrospinal fluid cytology was in most cases highly suggestive of viral infection. This study demonstrates the value of both immunofluorescent staining on CSF cells and CSF cytology, as corroboration of an otherwise exclusively ...

Methods A retrospective chart review of cSLE patients at one tertiary care center was conducted. Among cSLE patients followed between 1998 and January 2010, 9 patients who were diagnosed and treated for herpes zoster were identified. Data extracted included demographic and clinical features of cSLE disease at presentation, disease activity, medication and immunization history, and course of zos...

OBJECTIVES Herpes zoster has been widely described in the context of different systemic autoimmune diseases but not dermatomyositis/polymyositis. Therefore, we analyzed the prevalence, risk factors and herpes zoster outcomes in this population. METHOD A retrospective cohort study of herpes zoster infections in dermatomyositis/polymyositis patients was performed. The patients were followed at ...

A 66-year-old man who had medical history of hypertension presented with severe constipation, although he had previously had a regular bowel habit. Abdominal roentgenogram did not show a pattern of ileus. After four days, he felt tingling pain on the left abdominal wall and developed herpes zoster of the T11 dermatome on the left side. The left abdominal wall on which herpes zoster appeared was...

The skin lesion of herpes zoster is classically limited to a single dermatome, and most cases of multi-dermatomal herpes zoster have contiguous skin lesions. Noncontigous multi-dermatomal herpes zoster is very rare in both immunocompetent and immunosuppressed persons. The phenomenon of zoster occurring in two non-contiguous dermatomes has been referred to as zoster duplex unilateralis or bilate...

BACKGROUND The association between heart failure (HF) and herpes zoster has rarely been studied. We investigated the hypothesis that HF may increase the risk of herpes zoster in Taiwan using a nationwide Taiwanese population-based claims database. METHOD Our study cohort consisted of patients who received a diagnosis of HF in 2001 ~ 2009 (N = 4785). For a comparison cohort, three age- and gen...

Sir, Post-marketing surveillance (PMS) supplies important information on the pro® t ± risk evaluation of a drug after its approval. Its importance derives from the fact that it is carried out in routine clinical everyday life and without the patient and investigator selection biases that result from controlled clinical studies. Herpes zoster is a common disease that affects up to 20% of the pop...

rare. It usually occurs in the setting of im− munodeficiency, for example in patients with malignancy [1], patients on immu− nosuppressive therapy [2], or patients with AIDS [3]. A 62−year−old patient with non−small−cell lung cancer (T3N2M1) presented with a 1−month history of persistent dysphagia and odynophagia. Eight weeks before, he had undergone whole−brain radiation therapy for multiple c...