Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Deer tick virus is related to Powassan virus, a tickborne encephalitis virus. A 62-year-old man presented with a meningoencephalitis syndrome and eventually died. Analyses of tissue samples obtained during surgery and at autopsy revealed a widespread necrotizing meningoencephalitis. Nucleic acid was extracted from formalin-fixed tissue, and the presence of deer tick virus was verified on a flavivirus-specific polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assay, followed by sequence confirmation. Immunohistochemical analysis with antisera specific for deer tick virus identified numerous immunoreactive neurons, with prominent involvement of large neurons in the brain stem, cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus, and spinal cord. This case demonstrates that deer tick virus can be a cause of fatal encephalitis.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine
Authors: Norma P. Tavakoli, Heng Wang, Michelle Dupuis, Rene Hull, Gregory D. Ebel, Emily J. Gilmore, Phyllis L. Faust
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2010073011