What are the detection and diagnosis methods of HSV

HSV stands for herpes simplex virus, which is transmitted through direct intimate contact and sexual transmission. It is divided into two types: HSV-1 and HSV-2. The former is more common in children, and the infected areas are mostly around the children's oral cavity. Less often, it can cause genital infections. The latter mainly infects the genitals and is ranked fourth among infectious diseases in the world. The patient will have rice-sized blisters at the lesion site, either single or in clusters, usually around 10 in number. There is slight itching and fever. So how to determine whether you are sick? There are generally three methods of detection. Let's introduce them below:

1. Serological examination: This examination mainly checks the antibodies against HSV-1 and HSV-2.

2. Cytological examination: Cytological examination is a cytological examination for herpes virus.

3. Antibody detection. The most common antibody detection method is HSV-2 antibody detection. Of course, if it is the protein blotting method, gD2 can also be used as an antigen to detect HSV-2 antibodies.

Diagnostic Methods

1. Virus Isolation

The patient's saliva, cerebrospinal fluid, oral, cervical, and vaginal secretions, or corneal and conjunctival scrapings are inoculated into susceptible cells and cultured for 1 to 2 days. If the cells become swollen, rounded, and fused, a preliminary diagnosis can be made. Then immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used for identification and confirmation of HSV. Perform typing when necessary.

(II) Antigen detection

For the same specimens, use IFA, ELISA and other methods to directly detect antigens in cells or secretions to quickly diagnose HSV infection.

(III) Antibody testing

Complement fixation tests and ELISA can be used to detect antibodies in patient serum, which can be used to diagnose primary infection, but cannot distinguish it from recurrent infection. Because the HSV infection rate in the population is high and latent infection is widespread, the serum generally contains high antibody levels. Therefore, it is difficult to observe an increase in antibody titers during recurrent infection. The detection of cerebrospinal fluid antibodies is of great significance for HSV infection of the nervous system.

In addition, the detection of HSV DNA using DNA molecular hybridization and PCR methods has shown great superiority. It is now mostly used in experimental research and will be promoted and applied in clinical practice.