Skin Flickering Sign: A New Clinical Sign for Differentiating Pre-Eruptive Herpes Zoster from Other Causes of Unilateral Pain
Author(s): Haidar Hassan Al-Ameri* and Hieder Al-Shami
Abstract
Diagnosing herpes zoster before the appearance of eruption is very challenging. We report a new clinical sign that can aid in the diagnosis of herpes zoster in the pre eruptive phase and in exclusion of other types of pain. The skin flickering sign (or Haidar sign) is regarded positive when patient feels an increase in the intensity of pain or paresthesia during flickering of skin. Skin flickering sign is a simple, reproducible and diagnostic sign for differentiating between herpes zoster pain or allodynia and any other cause of unilateral pain including pain of visceral origin. This sign will aid physicians in the diagnosis of pre-eruptive herpes zoster or at least in raising the suspicion of its presence thus proceeding to the expensive not widely available laboratory tests