Dermatomal lichenoid chronic graft vs host disease following varicella-zoster infection despite absence of viral genome

Localized cutaneous graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following a dermatomal distribution or in a pattern of Blaschko's lines. Some authors have postulated that dermatomal GVHD is triggered by a varicella-zoster virus infection, although in reported cases, there was no history of a preceding herpes tester. We describe a case of GVHD localized to the exact dermatome of a culture-proven varicella-zoster virus infection. PCR analysis failed to detect persistence of viral genome in the affected skin. (C) Munksgaard 1996.