Töndury B Kühne A Kutzner H Palmedo G Lautenschlager S Borelli S 2010 BACKGROUND The diagnosis of parapox virus infections relies primarily on a history of contact with infected animals. The clinical presentation is usually a non-specific necrotic ulcer. The histology may also be non-specific, especially with older lesions. Negative-staining electron microscopy (EM) is a fast and reliable diagnostic tool, but is not widely available. Serological tests and the time-consuming viral culture are also rarely used in Europe. PATIENTS AND METHODS The diagnostic procedure in two patients with ecthyma contagiosum and milker's nodule using polymerase chain reaction specific for orthopox, parapox and Orf virus is explained. Diagnostics included bacterial culture, viral culture, histology and EM. In addition to these, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed in both cases. RESULTS The patient with ecthyma contagiosum was negative for ortho-, parapox-, and orf-virus on PCR, whereas the patient with milker's nodule had a PCR positive for parapoxvirus. CONCLUSIONS PCR is a simple, fast, and standardized method of diagnosis that can distinguish between the subgroups of parapoxviruses. A diagnosis can be made even in cases of ambiguous history or unspecific clinical presentation. The method is limited by the necessity to sample native material or to use neutrally buffered formalin in case of PCR from paraffin material. https://sonar.ch/global/documents/75391 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1111/j.1610-0387.2010.07454.x info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/20497283 Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft = Journal of the German Society of Dermatology : JDDG. - 2010 Adult DNA, Viral Diagnosis, Differential Ecthyma, Contagious Female Hand Dermatoses Humans Microscopy, Electron Molecular Diagnostic Techniques Orf virus Parapoxvirus Polymerase Chain Reaction Poxviridae Infections Molecular diagnostics of parapox virus infections. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501