Pulmonary involvement in disseminated varicella infection in an adult

Some crusted vesicles were distributed over the head, neck, trunk (figure 1A) and limbs, and the Tzanck smear of the same showed large multinucleated giant cells signifying varicella infection (figure 1B). Pulmonary involvement is seen in 5%–15% of the adult varicella patients,1 which is associated...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ case reports 2022-01, Vol.15 (1), p.e247974
Main Authors: Arora, Navneet, Bhat, Prasanna, Gupta, Priyansh, Singh, Harpreet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Case reports
Chicken pox
Chickenpox - complications
Herpes Zoster
Herpesvirus 3, Human
Humans
Images In
Infections
Lungs
Mortality
Pneumonia
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Some crusted vesicles were distributed over the head, neck, trunk (figure 1A) and limbs, and the Tzanck smear of the same showed large multinucleated giant cells signifying varicella infection (figure 1B). Pulmonary involvement is seen in 5%–15% of the adult varicella patients,1 which is associated with high mortality rates, up to 50%, especially among immunocompromised individuals. Any immunosuppression that affects the cell-mediated immunity increases the risk of varicella infection, including HIV infection, prolonged treatment with steroids, cancer or diabetes mellitus.2 Radiographic findings are non-specific and include ill-defined or well-defined nodules with surrounding ground-glass opacity distributed diffusely in lung fields.3 4 Diagnosis is mainly based on the typical skin lesions, Tzanck smear findings and pulmonary involvement.
ISSN:1757-790X
1757-790X
DOI:10.1136/bcr-2021-247974