A new study links the virus that causes chicken pox to a condition that inflames blood vessels on the temples and scalp in elderly people, called giant cell arteritis.

Researchers examined for evidence of the virus in 13 temporal artery biopsies of people who died and had no previous symptoms of giant cell arteritis and in 84 temporal artery biopsies of people with giant cell arteritis. All the biopsies were from people over the age of 50-years. They found the virus in 74 percent of the biopsies with giant cell arteritis and in only 8 percent of the normal skin biopsies.
Gilden said, "If the association can be replicated in other studies, clinical trials should focus on treating people with giant cell arteritis with a combination of the current steroid drugs used for the condition, plus anti-viral treatment for the virus."
The study appears online in the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Source-Medindia