{"title":"Herpes Simplex Virus Encephalitis in a Post-operative Case of Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma.","authors":"Anuragani Verma, Shruti Radera, Amita Jain, Nandini Mishra, Sheetal Agarwal, Om Prakash","doi":"10.15190/d.2024.13","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis is a life-threatening consequence of HSV infection of the central nervous system. Early antiviral therapy is most effective, necessitating prompt diagnosis. We report a case of atypical HSV encephalitis. The appearance of a strong headache followed by impairment of consciousness during the postoperative course in a 70-year-old patient who underwent surgical removal of a follicular thyroid carcinoma. Diffusion-weighted MRI detected brain abnormalities on the second day after the onset of symptoms, and polymerase chain reaction identification of HSV-1 DNA confirmed the diagnosis. A positive prognosis was achieved due to the decision to start specific, high-dose antiviral therapy based on clinical suspicion. A firm diagnosis was established by Tzanck smear and polymerase chain reaction.</p>","PeriodicalId":72829,"journal":{"name":"Discoveries (Craiova, Romania)","volume":"12 3","pages":"e194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11693436/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Discoveries (Craiova, Romania)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.15190/d.2024.13","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/7/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis is a life-threatening consequence of HSV infection of the central nervous system. Early antiviral therapy is most effective, necessitating prompt diagnosis. We report a case of atypical HSV encephalitis. The appearance of a strong headache followed by impairment of consciousness during the postoperative course in a 70-year-old patient who underwent surgical removal of a follicular thyroid carcinoma. Diffusion-weighted MRI detected brain abnormalities on the second day after the onset of symptoms, and polymerase chain reaction identification of HSV-1 DNA confirmed the diagnosis. A positive prognosis was achieved due to the decision to start specific, high-dose antiviral therapy based on clinical suspicion. A firm diagnosis was established by Tzanck smear and polymerase chain reaction.