The relationship of Vitamin B 12 with Two Symptoms of Shingles: Who has
Pain and Who has Itch?
Abstract
Background; Both herpetic pain and itching in shingles are two symptoms
whose pathogenesis has not been elucidated, although they are thought to
be due to nerve damage. These two symptoms are difficult to treat and
negative impact quality of life. In addition, It is unclear which
patient will have the symptoms of itching or pain. Vitamin B 12 is a
neurotropic agent which is contributes to the treatment of nerve damage,
and effective in treating neuropathic pain and itch. In this study we
investigated that is relationship between vitamin B12 both herpetic pain
and herpetic itch. Methods; In this study, we investigated the effect of
vitamin B12 values on itching and pain symptoms that patients with
shingles have in the acute period. Vitamin B 12 values of 53 adults with
patients with shingles with herpetic pain or herpetic itching were
recorded and compared with the control group. Results; We found that
patients with herpetic pain had lower vitamin B12 values than the
control group (p=0.046) and patients with herpetic itch (p=0.021).
Vitamin B12 values of herpetic itch patients did not show significant
difference from the control group (p=0.816). Conclusions; Although
vitamin B12 deficiency plays a role in the etiology of herpetic pain, it
has no effect on herpetic itching. Our study supports that the
etiopathogenesis of HI is different from herpetic pain, and will help
studies focusing on herpetic itching etiopathogenesis.