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Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Plaquing of Herpes Simplex Viruses
Published on: November 5, 2021
Clinical features of anterior uveitis caused by three different herpes viruses
Jun-Ichi Sakai1, Yoshihiko Usui2, Jun Suzuki1
1Department of Ophthalmology, Tokyo Medical University Hospital, 6-7-1 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-0023, Japan.
Purpose:
To compare the clinical findings in patients with anterior uveitis (AU) caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), and cytomegalovirus (CMV).
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed the clinical profiles of HSV-AU (14 patients), VZV sine herpete (ZSH-AU: 21 patients), and CMV-AU (17 patients) diagnosed by the detection of corresponding viral DNA in aqueous humor samples by polymerase chain reaction. Further, five patients with Posner-Schlossman (P-S) syndrome were selected as controls for CMV-AU.
Results:
Patients with CMV-AU were predominately male or older in age, and all cases were unilateral except for three patients with CMV-AU. Mutton-fat keratic precipitates (KPs) were found mostly in patients with HSV-AU and ZSH-AU. Severities of AU and viral load were the highest in ZSH-AU, followed by HSV-AU and CMV-AU. Iris atrophy was observed in HSV-AU (50%) and ZSH-AU (76%), with typical morphology of round type and sector type, respectively. In patients with CMV-AU, a ring-shaped KP was found in 53% patients, 76% of whom showed a decreased number of corneal endothelial cells. CMV was not detected in the aqueous humor of patients with typical P-S syndrome.
Conclusion:
Clinical findings of HSV-AU and VZV-AU were similar; however, more inflammatory findings were observed in VZV-AU. Iris atrophy morphologically differed in HSV-AU and VZV-AU. Inflammatory findings in CMV-AU were mild, and clinical features of iritis differed from those of the two former groups. A difference in the etiology between CMV-AU and P-S syndrome was observed.
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