No evidence of varicella-zoster virus infection in temporal artery biopsies of anterior ischemic optic neuropathy patients with and without giant cell arteritis.

Verdijk, Robert M; Ouwendijk, Werner J D; Kuijpers, Robert W A M; Verjans, Georges M G M

To test the hypothesis that varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection contributes to temporal arteritis pathogenesis, comprehensive in-situ analysis was performed on temporal artery biopsies of 38 anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) patients, including 14 (37%) with giant cell arteritis. Biopsies were completely sectioned and on average 146 serial sections/patient were stained for VZV glycoprotein E. Four of 38 AION patients showed VZV glycoprotein E staining, but VZV infection was not confirmed by staining for VZV IE63 protein and VZV-specific PCR on adjacent sections. This study refutes the premise that VZV is casually related to AION with and without giant cell arteritis.