Herpes zoster

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Herpes zoster

Alternative Names:

Shingles
Symptoms:

Warning symptoms of unilateral pain, tingling, or burning sensation limited to a specific part of the body -- pain and burning sensation may be intense
Reddening of the skin (erythema) followed by the appearance of blisters (vesicles)
Grouped, dense, deep, small blisters that ooze and crust

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease:

Fever, chills
General feeling of malaise
Headache
Lymph node swelling
Vision abnormalities
Taste abnormalities
Drooping eyelid (ptosis)
Loss of eye motion (ophthalmoplegia)
Hearing loss
Joint pain
Genital lesions (female or male)
Abdominal pain

Signs and tests:

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Diagnosis is suspected based on the appearance of the skin lesions, and strengthened by a prior history of chickenpox or shingles. It can be confused with herpes simplex.

Tests are rarely necessary, but may include:

Viral culture of skin lesion
Tzanck test of skin lesion
Complete blood count (CBC) may show elevated white blood cells, a nonspecific sign of infection
Specific antibody (immunoglobulin) measurement demonstrates elevation of varicella antibodies