Is there a blood test to diagnose internal shingles?

Answer 1

In my entire life, and I am not very young, I have never heard of "internal shingles." I have personally had shingles twice and have known 3 other people who had them and it is not an internal problem. It is caused by the chicken pox virus and appears on the skin in blisters that swell and itch and burn. There is no blood test that I have ever heard of to diagnose shingles because all a doctor has to do is examine your skin where the pain is and if he knows what he's doing, he can easily tell if it's shingles or not.

Answer 2

Internal Shingles

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

2

Answer 5

3

Answer 6

Yes, there is blood testing and culture testing for shingles. It is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. And yes, there is a vaccination for chicken pox. you get the shot when you are 6 months old. Back about 10 years ago, people would have pox parties to contaminate their kids so that they would get it before they got older. But now the safer way is the vaccination. Chicken pox is usually never fatal, but getting it when you are older increases your odds. The virus is called Varicella-Zoster Virus. If you have had chicken pox as a kid, you can get shingles. All shingles is is the virus becoming active and releasing itself from ganglion in your tissues to produce painful sores.

Here are some laboratory tests that we COMMONLY run on patients who doctors think have chicken pox, or shingles.

Varicella-Zoster by Polymerase Chain Reaction
Varicella-Zoster by IgG Antibody detection (tells past infection or immunity against virus)
Varicella-Zoster by IgM Antibody detection (tells you current infection if positive)
(all about 99% sensitive)
Yes, some doctors due sometimes look at your rash or sores and can determine if it is Chicken pox/Shingles without doing testing, but more and more things are looking more like each other, making it harder to rule things out. Laboratory tests are usually the best way to go.

Answer 7

Shingles is a herpes virus that usually appears in adults recently exposed to their grandchildren who have chickenpox (also a herpes). Shingles are not internal -- the virus tends to follow nerve endings in the skin, erupting along the trunk, arms, and even into the eye. There are no tests. In fact, there is not vaccine yet for chickenpox (and therefore shingles.)