ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1623229
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches to Neuralgia: Mechanisms and Treatment DevelopmentView all 18 articles
Serum biomarkers and postherpetic neuralgia in herpes zoster patients with immunocompetent
Provisionally accepted
- HangZhou Third People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) typically occurs in immunocompromised patients.However, there is a lack of prospective studies involving large samples of immunocompetent individuals. A prospective study was conducted to ascertain the association between serum levels of various markers and the occurrence of PHN in acute herpes zoster (HZ) patients with immunocompetent. Method: A total of 887 acute HZ patients with immunocompetent who were admitted to Hangzhou Third People's Hospital between April 2021 and December 2023 were selected. Peripheral venous blood at their initial visit was collected and the levels of various serum markers were detected. According to whether PHN occurred or not during follow-up, the participants were divided into PHN group and Non-PHN group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to screen the influencing factors of PHN. Result: 217 cases (24.5%) developed PHN. Compared with the Non-PHN group, age, numerical rating scale (NRS) scores, levels of C reactive protein (CRP) and Homocysteine (HCY) in PHN group were significantly increased (P<0.01), while CD3+ (P<0.05), CD4+(P<0.01), CD4+/CD8+ ratios (P<0.05), albumin levels(P<0.01), and albumin / globulin (A/G) ratios (P<0.05) were significantly decreased.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, NRS scores, levels of CRP, and HCY were independent risk factors for PHN among acute HZ patients with immunocompetent. ROC curve analysis showed that the sensitivity and specificity of combined with age, NRS scores, CRP and HCY levels in predicting PHN were 68.4% and 74.1%, respectively. Conclusion: Age and the severity of pain at the time of onset were also the risk factors for PHN in acute HZ patients with immunocompetent. The levels of serum CRP and HCY as potential biomarkers may have certain reference value for predicting the occurrence of PHN in acute HZ patients with immunocompetent.
Keywords: Herpes Zoster, Neuralgia, immunocompromised, Immunocompetent, Serum, markers
Received: 05 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Yuan, Wang, Zhang and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Huili Liu, HangZhou Third People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Yongxing Yan, HangZhou Third People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.