Herpes zoster of the maxillary branch of the trigeminus nerve. Virological and serological studies.

A 70-year-old male had erythematous and vesiculous lesions in the area of the right maxillary branch of the trigeminus nerve and was clinically diagnosed as having herpes zoster; virological and serological investigations of this case were carried out. Consequently, an electron microscopic observation revealed a great number of virus particles of herpes type in the vesiculous lesion and in baby hamster kidney BHK21/WI-21 cells, cultured after inoculating the fluid from the vesicle formed on the patient's upper lip or from serum harvested during the viremia. When BHK21/WI-21 cells infected with this virus were tested for antigenicity by an indirect immunofluorescent staining technique, they showed a positive staining to antivaricella-zoster virus. When serum of this patient was assayed fof the antibody level against varicella-zoster virus by the complement fixation test at various time intervals during the therapeutic period, this antibody titer on recovery period showed a threefold increase in comparison to that at onset. From these findings, this infectious disease was precisely diagnosed as herpes zoster.