ArticleBMC infectious diseases2012
Impact of Herpes simplex virus load and red blood cells in cerebrospinal fluid upon herpes simplex meningo-encephalitis outcome.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnosis and Management of Infectious Encephalitis in Adults: Guidelines From the European Academy of Neurology and European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.European journal of neurology · 2026Guideline
- Herpes Simplex Encephalitis: Lack of Clinical Benefit of Long-term Valacyclovir Therapy.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2015Trial
- Health economic impact of early versus delayed treatment of herpes simplex virus encephalitis in the UK.BMJ open · 2025Observational
- Comment on Cuesta et al. An Assessment of a New Rapid Multiplex PCR Assay for the Diagnosis of Meningoencephalitis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Can we forecast poor outcome in herpes simplex and varicella zoster encephalitis? A narrative review.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Viral and Prion Infections Associated with Central Nervous System Syndromes in Brazil.Viruses · 2021Review
- Contamination Issue in Viral Metagenomics: Problems, Solutions, and Clinical Perspectives.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Next-generation sequencing in the diagnosis of viral encephalitis: sensitivity and clinical limitations.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Immunomodulatory Strategies in Herpes Simplex Virus Encephalitis.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2020Review
- A Cross-Sectional Study of Hyponatremia Associated with Acute Central Nervous System Infections.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Article
- Functional outcomes in adult patients with herpes simplex encephalitis admitted to the ICU: a multicenter cohort study.Intensive care medicine · 2019Article
- Alpha herpes virus type and viral load in intraocular fluids in patients with acute retinal necrosis.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2019Article
- Herpes Simplex Encephalitis: an Update.Current infectious disease reports · 2017Review
- Kaposi's varicelliform eruption in herpes simplex encephalitis.Internal and emergency medicine · 2016Article
- Article
- Development and Validation of a Laboratory-Developed Multiplex Real-Time PCR Assay on the BD Max System for Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus and Varicella-Zoster Virus DNA in Various Clinical Specimens.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2015Article
- Results of a multinational study suggest the need for rapid diagnosis and early antiviral treatment at the onset of herpetic meningoencephalitis.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHerpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) often leads to severe disability or death. Factors usually associated with outcome include Simplified Acute Physiology Score, age and delay of initiation of acyclovir treatment.Our aim was to determine the impact of Herpes simplex virus (HSV) load in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) upon HSE outcome.
methodsWe retrospectively determined HSV load in the CSF of 43 patients with confirmed HSE, hospitalized in northern France from 1998 to 2005, using CSF samples collected the day of hospital admission and stored at -20°C. We analyzed the association between HSV load and mortality/morbidity by the Glasgow Outcome Scale. Fisher's exact test and Wilcoxon's test were used for statistical analysis.
resultsThe M/F sex ratio was 1.7 and median patient age was 61 years. Median HSV load in CSF was 2.0 log copies/μL (IQR 25-75=1.2-2.6). The mortality rate was 32.6% six months after HSE diagnosis. Higher age was associated with mortality (p=0.03). Longer delay in acyclovir initiation tended to be associated with higher mortality but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.08). Severe disability and death due to HSV were associated with a higher Knaus score (p=0.004), later acyclovir initiation (p=0.006), older age (p=0.04) and presence of red blood cells in CSF (p=0.05). HSV load in CSF was neither associated with mortality (p=1.00) nor with morbidity (p=0.90).
conclusionIn this study, HSV load in CSF was not found to be associated with poor outcome in patients with HSE. These data do not support measurement of HSV load at admission in patients with HSE.
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