POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION FOR DIAGNOSIS OF HERPETIC EYE DISEASE

Herpesviruses cause retinal and choroidal disease worldwide. Establish ing a definitive diagnosis of herpesviral ocular infection is difficul t because traditional cell culture and serologic methods often yield a mbiguous results. Ophthalmologists are often forced to initiate antivi ral therapy based on clinical presentation alone. When the clinical di agnosis is not obvious the clinician often begins treating the patient with one drug and then changes drugs if the condition does not improv e. Unfortunately, the patient's vision may be lost by the time a corre ct treatment is found. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may be impo rtant in intraocular herpesviral infection (diagnosis because it is ex tremely sensitive, specific, and allows multiple tests to be done on a small sample volume.