Detection of Human Herpes Virus-6 in saliva of Patients with Bell's palsy

Background: Bell’s palsy is unilateral peripheral paralysis of the seventh cranial nerve, several mechanisms have been proposed in the pathogenesis of this disease, among the viral infections specially herpes virus's family including roseola viruses that have been detected in patients' saliva. Method: A case-control study conducted on Bell’s palsy patients at al-Imamein Al-kadhimein Medical City throughout the period from March 2019 to November 2019. Saliva samples were taken from 50 patients (18-55) years of age with early stages of Bell's palsy and from 50 apparently healthy and age and sex matched volunteers as control. Viral DNA was extracted from the saliva and then real time PCR for detection and quantification of HHV6 DNA in these patients Results: Saliva samples taken from 28 patients in the Bell’s palsy patients (56%) tested positive for HHV6, as vs. to just 8 (16%) in the healthy group(control) (P= 0.028). There was increase amount of HHV6 load in patients compare to control group (p=0.001). Regarding the demographic values, an important difference in the detection rate for Human herpes virus-6 between male (64%) and females (35%) (P= 0.02). There was significant correlation between age and grading (p =0.01), as increase age correlate with high grading, also between viral load of HH6 and grading as increase viral load of the virus correlate with high grading (p = 0.001). Conclusion: HHV-6 virus might have a potential role in the pathogenesis of Bell’s palsy.