1. Varicella Zoster Virus Infection in Granulomatous Arteritis of the Aorta
- Author
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Dawn B. Holmes, Meredith Frank, Teresa White, Maria A. Nagel, Philip J. Boyer, E. Tessa Hedley-Whyte, Donald H. Gilden, and Kristin M. Galetta
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Herpesvirus 3, Human ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,viruses ,Giant Cell Arteritis ,medicine.disease_cause ,Herpes Zoster ,Major Articles and Brief Reports ,03 medical and health sciences ,Chickenpox ,0302 clinical medicine ,Antigen ,medicine ,Humans ,Immunology and Allergy ,Arteritis ,Aortitis ,Subclinical infection ,integumentary system ,biology ,business.industry ,Varicella zoster virus ,virus diseases ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,medicine.disease ,eye diseases ,Temporal Arteries ,Giant cell arteritis ,030104 developmental biology ,Infectious Diseases ,biology.protein ,Antibody ,business ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Granulomatous arteritis characterizes the pathology of giant cell arteritis, granulomatous aortitis, and intracerebral varicella zoster virus (VZV) vasculopathy. Because intracerebral VZV vasculopathy and giant cell arteritis are strongly associated with productive VZV infection in cerebral and temporal arteries, respectively, we evaluated human aortas for VZV antigen and VZV DNA. Using 3 different anti-VZV antibodies, we identified VZV antigen in 11 of 11 aortas with pathologically verified granulomatous arteritis, in 1 of 1 cases of nongranulomatous arteritis, and in 5 of 18 control aortas (28%) obtained at autopsy. The presence of VZV antigen in granulomatous aortitis was highly significant (P = .0001) as compared to control aortas, in which VZV antigen was never associated with pathology, indicating subclinical reactivation. VZV DNA was found in most aortas containing VZV antigen. The frequent clinical, radiological, and pathological aortic involvement in patients with giant cell arteritis correlates with the significant detection of VZV in granulomatous aortitis.
- Published
- 2016
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