Electron Microscope Studies on Viral Skin Lesions

Murray G. Williams

Archives of Dermatology · 1962 · 38 citations · 7 references

Concepts

Abstract

By means of the electron microscope, it is possible to identify visually many different viruses, and one might expect that this instrument would be useful as a clinical tool for aiding the diagnosis of virus diseases. So far, its use for this purpose has been very limited, mainly because of the difficulty of preparing specimens in a form suitable for examination in the electron microscope. In principle, the thin sectioning technique which has been so successfully applied in recent years to the study of minute biological structures can be used to detect and identify viruses in infected cells. In practice, however, the method is time consuming and presents technical difficulties that make it of little value to the clinician. Examination of virus-containing extracts after shadow casting with heavy metals has been suggested by Blank and Rake 1 as a means of diagnosis, and in fact, Nagler and Rake 2 used

References

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