Varicella-zoster antibodies in patients with Hodgkin's disease

In an endeavour to find an explanation for th raised incidence of herpes zoster in hemoblastoses, serum samples of 50 patients with histologically confirmed Hodgkin's disease and 80 control sera of normal persons of similar age groups were tested for the presenchods of indirect hemagglutination (IH), complement fixation (CF), and immunodiffusion (ID). The geometric mean titer of IH antibodies and the rate of positive ID results were significantly higher in the patients' group. The geometric mean titers of CF antibodies did not differ significantly in the two groups. A certain correlation between serological results and the histological type of Hodgkin's disease was found, but it was not statistically significant. No other correlation of serological results with clinical data was ascertained.