A pathological study on herpes simplex virus infections in adults

Abstract

A pathological study was carried out in 200 autopsied cases experienced in our department from 1981 to 1988. Eight patients (4.0%) had herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections in their visceral organs. Another one patient was diagnosed as HSV hepatitis through necropsy of liver. The nine patients (five of them were male) ranged in age from 34 to 70 years (mean, 58). Four patients had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and the other included one with adult T-cell leukemia, one with multiple myeloma, one with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and one with bronchial asthma, however, one did not have any underlying disease. Two patients died of HSV fulminant hepatitis and one died of HSV diffuse interstitial pneumonia. The most commonly involved organ was esophagus (7/8), followed by tongue (5/8), liver (3/9), spleen, pancreas, lymph node (2/8), and lung, adrenal, tonsil (1/8). Typical herpetic changes such as ballooning degeneration of cells, multinucleated giant cells, ground-glass nuclei and Cowdry type A intranuclear inclusions were observed at the margin of the ulcer or coagulation necrosis. Indirect immunoperoxidase stain revealed HSV-1 antigen in all of the 9 cases, HSV particles were demonstrated in 2. Seven patients had concomitant infections with one or more pathogens in addition to HSV, which included cytomegalovirus in 5, aspergillus in 4, candida in 3 and bacteria in 3.