"iDoctor – Medical Blog"

Purpose: This study examines the histology of conjunctival biopsy samples from patients with persistent allergic eosinophilic conjunctivitis (AEC) or non-allergic eosinophilic conjunctivitis (NAEC).Methods: Fourteen patients with conjunctivitis and eosinophilia in cytology samples were included in the study. Seven had positive skin-prick tests (the AEC group) and seven had negative skin-prick tests (the NAEC group). Eight asymptomatic subjects with negative skin-prick tests served as a control group. In conjunctival biopsies eosinophils were identified with monoclonal antibodies. Mast cells were identified by specific immunostaining and tryptase-positive granules were counted around them. The percentage of degranulated mast cells was used as a measure of cell activation. Eosinophil and goblet cell numbers were counted, epithelial thickness was measured, and the symptoms were characterized and graded.Results: The numbers of eosinophils in biopsies were higher in patients with AEC than in healthy controls (p = 0.010). The proportion of activated mast cells tended to be higher in AEC patients (65%) than in NAEC patients (48%) or control subjects (40%). Patients with AEC had more goblet cells than control subjects (p = 0.049) and their epithelial layer was thicker (p = 0.054). Patients with AEC had more severe symptoms than control subjects (p = 0.0005), whereas the symptoms of NAEC patients did not differ statistically from those of controls (p = 0.065).Conclusions: Patients with NAEC were characterized by mild eosinophilic inflammation and only minor structural conjunctival changes. The condition seems to run a relatively mild but persistent clinical course.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 3:14 am and is filed under Health news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.