Varicella zoster virus vasculopathy and disseminated encephalomyelitis

Encephalitis is a severe illness in which neurological signs and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) findings indicate inflammation of the brain parenchyma, usually by a virus. Prototypical human viral encephalitides throughout the world are caused by brain infection with arthropod-borne viruses (e.g., Japanese encephalitis virus, tickborne encephalitis virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, Eastern or Western equine encephalitis virus), enteroviruses (Coxsackie or echovirus and formerly poliovirus), and by infection of the temporal and frontal lobes with herpes simplex virus (HSV) [ [1] Johnson R.T. Viral infections of the nervous system. 2nd edn. Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia1998 Google Scholar ]. Virus infection primarily destroys neurons and sometimes glial cells. As long as 30 years ago, clinicians, pathologists and virologists recognized a wide diversity of pathological lesions produced by acute virus infection of the nervous system, depending upon whether infection was most prominent in neurons, glia, endothelial cells, leptomeninges, ependyma or blood vessels [ [2] Nathanson N. Cole G.A. Weiner L.P. Gilden D.H. Johnson R.T. Diversity of pathological lesions produced by acute virus infections of the nervous system. in: Proc. VIth Int. Congr. Neuropathol. Masson et Cie, Paris1970: 876-891 Google Scholar ].