Viral Antibody Titer Changes in Acute and Convalescent Stage of Bell's Palsy

Suh, Sang il; So, Joon

Ann Clin Neurophysiol > 2001 ;3(1) > Article

Ann Clin Neurophysiol. 2001; 3(1): 9-14.

Sang il Suh, and Joon So

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Backgrond : Bell's palsy(BP) is defined as an idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis of acute onset, accounting for more than 50% of all cases of facial parlysis. Different theories on the etiology of BP have been proposed. Herpes simplex virus-1(HSV) has been the most suspicious causative agent, but varicella zoster virus(VZV) also is suspected. Objectives : We evaluated the serological changes of IgG and IgM titer of HSV and VZV to know the causative agent of BP. Materials and Methods : Subjects consisted of 35 patients who developed acute idiopathic unilateral facial palsy(16 men and 19 women from 9 to 78 years old) within a week of onset. We took the serum of the acute and convalescent stages, respectively. Serum IgG and IgM titer of HSV and VZV were measured in acute and convalescent stages by EIA method. Results : Only the HSV IgG titer showed statistically significant elevation in the convalescent stage(p=0.0291). Others did not show any significant changes between the acute and convalescent stage. Conclusion : We concluded that HSV may be related to the causative agent of BP.

Key words: Bell's palsy, HSV, VZV, IgG, IgM