title: Conjunctival eosinophils in allergic ocular disease.
abstract: Tarsal conjunctival scrapings of 317 patients with allergic ocular disease demonstrated that eosinophils were found infrequently in scrapings of patients with mild allergic conditions and were found in only 63% (17/27) of the patients with vernal conjunctivitis. In similar studies of a 12-year-old boy with vernal keratoconjunctivitis, no eosinophils were recovered in his scraping, even though 12 eosinophils were found in five high-power fields of his biopsy specimen. We conclude that eosinophils present in the deep and superficial conjunctival tissues may not be recovered in scrapings; their absence from scrapings should not preclude the diagnosis of allergic ocular disease.
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000473:pathology*; D003231:Conjunctivitis / Q000473:pathology*; D004804:Eosinophils / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000473:pathology*; D007637:Keratoconjunctivitis / Q000473:pathology; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D012621:Seasons