Correlation between PHN and patient' s condition, VZV load, S100β, NSE level in patients with acute stage herpes zoster

Objective To investigate the changes of the patient's condition, varicella zoster virus (VZV) load, plasma S100β, neuron specific enolase (NSE) level in acute stage herpes zoster (HZ), and analyze their relationship with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Methods Fifty-six patients were selected from November. 2016 to May 2017 in our hospital with acute stage of HZ as observation group, before and after treatment to evaluate HZ patients condition, detect VZV DNA loads at the same time, plasma S100βand NSE level, and in the same period, 50 healthy volunteers were selected as control group. After 1 month follow-up of PHN in patients with HZ, the relationship between PHN and HZ patient's disease, VZV DNA load, plasma S100β and NSE were analyzed by Spearman. Results After treatment, the score of HZ patients was significantly lower than before treatment (P<0.05); No VZV DNA was detected in the blood of the control group, VZV DNA was detected in blister fluid of HZ patients in observation group, before treatment, there were 21 cases (37.5%) of VZV DNA positive in patients with HZ, after treatment, there were 7 cases (12.5%) of VZV DNA positive in peripheral blood of HZ patients, before and after treatment, the VZV DNA load in peripheral blood of HZ patients was significantly lower than that of the VZV DNA load in blister fluid of HZ patients (all P<0.05), and the VZV DNA load in peripheral blood of HZ patients after treatment was significantly lower than before treatment (P<0.05); Before and after treatment, the S100β and NSE levels of the observation group were significantly higher than the control group (all P<0.05), and after treatment, the S100β and NSE levels of the observation group were significantly lower than before treatment (all P<0.05); Before treatment, PHN was positive correlated with the disease, VZV and NSE (r=0.347, 0.562, 0.281; all P<0.05), and was unrelated to peripheral blood VZV and S100β, after treatment, PHN was positive correlated with the disease, peripheral blood VZV, S100β and NSE (r=0.606, 0.594, 0.606, 0.379; all P<0.05). Conclusion The changes of HZ patient's condition score, VZV load, S100β and NSE level have certain predictive value for PHN.