IMPROVED IMPRESSION CYTOLOGY TECHNIQUES FOR THE IMMUNOPATHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF SUPERFICIAL VIRAL-INFECTIONS

Background-For epidemiological and therapeutic reasons early diagnosis of superficial viral infections is crucial. Conventional microbiologi cal techniques are expensive, time consuming, and not sufficiently sen sitive. In this study impression cytology techniques were evaluated to analyse their diagnostic potential in viral infections of the ocular surface. Method-A Biopore membrane device instead of the original impr ession cytology technique was used to allow better quality and handlin g of the specimens. The impressions were processed, using monoclonal a ntibodies and immunoperoxidase or immunofluorescence techniques to ass ess the presence of herpes simplex virus, varicella tester virus, or a denovirus antigens. Ocular surface specimens from healthy individuals (n=10) and from patients with suspected viral surface disease (n=19) w ere studied. Infected and non-infected cell cultures served as control s. Results-This modified technique of impression cytology allowed the collection of large conjunctival and corneal epithelial cell layers wi th excellent morphology. Immunocytological staining of these samples p rovided diagnostic results for all three viruses in patients with vira l surface disease. Conclusions-The use of Biopore membrane devices for the collection of ocular surface epithelia offers new diagnostic poss ibilities for external eye diseases. Immunopathological methods that a re applied directly on these membrane devices can provide virological results within 1-4 hours. This contributes considerably to the clinica l management of patients with infectious diseases of the ocular surfac e.