A Study on the Connection between the Incidence of Postherpetic Neuralgia and Serum Ionized Calcium

A systematic literature review to assess the burden of herpes zoster disease in China

INTRODUCTION

Herpes zoster (HZ) or shingles occurs as a result of reactivation after a primary infection with varicella zoster virus (chickenpox). The burden of HZ in older adults in China is not well understood. We conducted a systematic literature review to understand the burden of disease related to HZ, its complications, and associated costs in China.

AREAS COVERED

Using publications retrieved from Chinese and English literature databases, we described incidence and prevalence of HZ, occurrence of HZ-related complications, and costs associated with HZ in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

EXPERT OPINION

The data, although limited, indicate that the burden of disease due to HZ is substantial in China, with incidence rates that are comparable to the rest of the world. Recently, an adjuvanted recombinant HZ vaccine was approved for use in China. Disease prevention is likely to reduce the burden of disease, with potentially significant economic benefits. However, understanding the public health impact of vaccination in China will require extensive baseline information about incidence, complication rates, and associated costs. This review gives an overview of available research, but also reveals existing gaps. Well-designed observational studies are needed to quantify the total burden of disease and potential impact of prevention through vaccination.

Study on the related factors of post-herpetic neuralgia in hospitalized patients with herpes zoster in Sichuan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine based on big data analysis

Although various factors were reported to be related to post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), studies based on adequate and comprehensive data were absent. Data was extracted from cases of hospitalized patients with herpes zoster in dermatology department, Sichuan hospital of traditional Chinese medicine range from December, 2011 to February, 2018, and then cleaned to build prediction model with TREENET algorithms. Following evaluated the prediction model by ROC and confusion matrix, variables importance ranking and variables dependency analysis were performed, resulting in the importance ranking of factors for PHN and the dependency between factors and PHN. Based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, 1303 (571 PHN and 732 normal controls) cases and 2958 indicators were selected. Model evaluation showed high ROC value (training sample = 0.985, test samples = 0.752) and high accuracy value (70.27%), which indicated that the model was predictive. After variables importance ranking and variables dependency analysis, 62 variables in the model were associated with the occurrence of PHN. Our study identified 62 variables related to PHN and revealed that various variables were the important risk factors for PHN, including age, MCHC, sodium and UA.