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A Report of 17 Cases

JOHN G. MERSELIS, JR., MD; DONALD KAYE, MD; EDWARD W. HOOK, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1964;113(5):679-686.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Herpes zoster is an acute viral infection characterized by vesicular skin lesions which are usually distributed over several unilateral adjacent sensory dermatomes. On microscopic examination the typical vesicular lesion reveals inflammation of the corium, edematous "ballooning" of epidermal cells, intranuclear inclusion bodies, and giant cell formation.¹ Inflammation and necrosis also occur in ganglia of the sensory portions of spinal or cranial nerves and occasionally in motor roots or the spinal cord. A localized leptomeningitis which leads to pleocytosis and elevated protein in cerebrospinal fluid is relatively common.²

In the typical case of herpes zoster, the cutaneous lesions are largely localized to the sites of initial involvement, and manifestations of a constitutional disturbance are minimal. However, in about 2% to 5% of cases of zoster, hematogenous dissemination of virus apparently occurs and leads to the development of widespread cutaneous lesions and a clinical syndrome with many of the characteristics . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
NEW YORK

From the Department of Medicine, The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

Footnotes
Received for publication Sept 9, 1963; accepted Nov 13.

Research Fellow in Medicine, Cornell University Medical College (this investigation was carried out during the tenure of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, United States Public Health Service) (Dr. Merselis); Assistant Professor of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College (this investigation was carried out during the tenure of a Special Fellowship from the National Cancer Institute, United States Public Health Service) (Dr. Kaye); Associate Professor of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College (Dr. Hook).

Supported by the Health Research Council of the City of New York under contract U-1107.

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