Scientific publications
High serum cholesterol levels are associated with herpes zoster infection after heart transplantation
Jose L Del Pozo,1,7 Diederik van de Beek,1,2,8 Jayawant N. Mandrekar,3 Richard C. Daly,4,5 Christopher G.A. McGregor,4 Jose R Azanza,7 and Robin Patel1,6
ABSTRACT
Sun and Singh reported that statins might improve morbidity and mortality attributable to sepsis or infection in organ transplant recipients. Statins have antiviral effects against HIV-1, BK virus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus and hepatitis C. Cholesterol is required for varicella zoster virus (VZV) cell entry. The relationship between cholesterol serum levels and risk of VZV post-transplant infection, if any, is unknown. We performed a case-control analysis to test the hypothesis that serum cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of zoster in heart transplant patients.
CITATION Clin Infect Dis. 2010 Jan 1;50(1):121-2.
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