Clinical and Somatosensory Correlates of Persistent Zoster-Associated Pain at One Month: A Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study

Background/Objectives: Persistent pain after acute herpes zoster (HZ) carries substantial functional burden, but early markers of pain persistence remain uncertain. In an exploratory analysis, we examined whether baseline clinical features and a simple affected-to-contralateral pressure-pain threshold (PPT) ratio were associated with persistent zoster-associated pain approximately one month after rash onset.