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SUMMARYThe antigenic relationship between the viruses of varicella-zoster and herpes simplex was studied by complement-fixation, fluorescent antibody staining and neutralization tests. Twenty-three of 75 patients with herpes simplex infections showed significant heterologous increases in complementfixing antibody titre to varicella-zoster virus. These heterologous increases occurred in patients with serological evidence of a prior infection with varicella-zoster virus, and the greatest proportion occurred in patients in the younger age groups who had probably experienced the most recent varicellazoster virus infections. Five of 42 patients with varicella-zoster infections showed heterologous complement-fixing antibody responses to herpes simplex virus; all were patients with serological evidence of a prior herpes simplex virus infection. The patients with herpes simplex infection who showed heterologous complement-fixing antibody responses to varicella-zoster virus also showed marked increases in neutralizing antibody and antibody demonstrable by immunofluorescent staining. However, none of the patients with varicella-zoster infection who showed heterologous increases in complementfixing antibody titre to herpes simplex virus had significant increases in neutralizing antibody.

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Tests for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody to group B coxsackieviruses were performed on sera from 259 patients with a clinical diagnosis of pericarditis, myocarditis, or pleurodynia on whom there were no definitive serological or virus isolation findings to establish a viral etiology, and on 259 “control” patients with clinical diagnoses of viral or mycoplasmal pneumonia or pneumonitis. IgM antibodies to coxsackievirus types B1, B3, B4, B5, and B6 were detected by a micro-immunodiffusion technique, and antibodies to virus type B2 were detected by reduction of neutralizing antibodies with ethanethiol. Of the patients with pericarditis, myocarditis, or pleurodynia, 27% (70) had IgM antibody to group B coxsackieviruses, as compared with 8% in the control group. On retrospective review of the clinical diagnosis, some of the patients in the control group with IgM antibody were found to have had additional clinical findings which could be attributed to a coxsackievirus infection. Coxsackievirus IgM antibody was demonstrable in 30% of 113 patients in the study group for whom virus isolation had been attempted with negative results. The presence of coxsackievirus IgM is discussed in relation to the time of serum collection, age of the patients, and month of onset of illness.

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