[Severe generalized courses of zoster due to cellular immunologic defects. Importance of an absolute or relative T-cell deficiency].

Four patients with chronic lymphatic leukaemia, M. Hodgkin and metastatic breast carcinoma developed particularly severe generalised herpes zoster, with complications of herpes zoster pneumonia, signs of encephalitis and phrenic nerve paresis. Virus specific complement-fixing antibodies increased regularly or delayed, without strict correlation to the clinical course. However, in all these cases there was a relative or absolute deficiency of T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, as a result of the underlying illness and of treatment with cytostatic agents. Because of the vital role of cell-mediated immunity in the control of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the observed T-cell deficiency seems to be an important pre-condition for the development of severe generalised herpes zoster.