NO LABORATORY EXAM

No laboratory exam could diagnose a HERPES ZOSTER unless of course you would do a punch biopsy of the lesion a procedure no patient wants. The doctor is basing his diagnosis on clinical symptoms and the appearance of the lesion with the accompanying signs and symptoms of pain with numbness of the area.  If a doctor did not do well in his medical school days, he wouldn't have an iota of knowledge what it is. His internship was full of work in other fields and dermatology is not one of those given  more attention. Good if he went to a hospital where Dermatology is incorporated in Internal Medicine and thus would expose him to cases like this. When the doctor goes into specialty training - residency in Surgery for example - he would never see HERPES ZOSTER again until he goes into practice.
We consultants cannot refuse a patient. More than always, we see relatives of our patient who were referred to us no matter what disease it is.In some of our days, we are consulted for cases like this and these people would not like to go to another physician. They expect us to know everything since we even open up people. And this lesion is skin deep, how could we not know it.
The CLINICAL EYE  is develop, nurtured, upgraded and maintain until we doctors die.