Treatment of Parvovirus B19–Associated Polyarteritis Nodosa with Intravenous Immune Globulin

To the Editor: We describe a patient who had polyarteritis nodosa associated with parvovirus B19 infection that regressed completely with intravenous immune globulin therapy. A 33-year-old woman was seen because of asthenia, fever (temperature, 40°C), palpable purpura (Figure 1), intense myalgia, paresthesias along the median nerves and right peroneal nerve, and polyarthritis of the hand joints. Her younger son had had a febrile exanthem three weeks earlier. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for serologic evidence of parvovirus B19, performed on day 4 of the illness, was positive for specific IgM and IgG antibodies. Polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) amplification detected parvovirus B19 DNA in the . . .