Screening Cerebrospinal Fluid Prior to Herpes Simplex Virus PCR Testing Might Miss Cases of Herpes Simplex Encephalitis

摘要

CSF HSV PCR is widely accepted to be the test of choice for herpes simplex encephalitis, but 98% sensitivity compared to the actual gold standard of brain biopsy means that false-negative PCR results can occur (6). Furthermore, CSF HSV PCR has been described to be negative early on in cases of herpes simplex encephalitis (7). A potential limitation of modeling retrospective laboratory data is that a patient with herpes simplex encephalitis but a false-negative CSF HSV PCR result might have been missed by Hauser et al. in their study (1).