Journal
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 39, Issue 8, Pages 2856-2859Publisher
AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.8.2856-2859.2001
Keywords
-
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) reactivation causes facial nerve palsy in Ramsay Hunt syndrome (RHS) and zoster sine herpete (ZSH) with and without zoster rash, respectively. In the present study, we analyzed the VZV DNA copy number in saliva samples from 25 patients with RHS and 31 patients with ZSH using a TaqMan PCR assay to determine differences in the viral load between the two diseases. VZV copy number in saliva peaked near the day of the appearance of zoster in patients with RHS. Consequently, VZV DNA was less frequently detected in patients with RHS who exhibited facial palsy several days after the appearance of zoster. These findings suggest that the VZV load in saliva samples reflects the kinetics of viral reactivation in patients with RHS. In addition, VZV DNA was equally detected in saliva from patients with RHS and ZSH, and there was no significant difference in the highest viral copy number between patients with RHS and those with ZSH. The VZV load does not appear to reflect a major difference between RHS and ZSH.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available