Herpes virus reactivation and serum tumor necrosis factor-α levels in patients with acute peripheral facial palsy

Recent studies have shown that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) plays an important regulatory role in several inflammatory and infectious diseases. In the present study, we evaluated serum TNF-alpha levels of patients with acute peripheral facial palsy using an ELISA method. We examined sera from each group (n = 25 per group) of patients with herpes simplex virus type 1 reactivation (HSV-1). varicella-zoster virus (VZV) reactivation, and with no HSV or VZV reactivation. We also tested the sera of 25 normal controls. No significant difference was found between the serum TNF-alpha levels in facial palsy and controls. No correlation was found between serum TNF-alpha levels in cases with HSV-1 or VZV reactivation and with no HSV-1 or VZV reactivation. These results indicate that serum TNF-alpha levels are not affected by HSV-1 or VZV reactivation in patients with facial palsy.