title: Enhancements to the conjunctival impression cytology technique and examples of applications in a clinico-biochemical study of dry eye.
abstract: The conjunctival impression cytology (CIC) technique was optimized for cell pick-up and resolution of cytologic detail. Use of surfactant-free smaller pore-size Millipore filters yielded consistently high cell pick-up and resolution of cell detail. Staining by the modified Papanicolaou technique in a free-floating format allowed quantitative evaluation of cytologic features. Air exposure of CIC specimens for up to 8 minutes before fixing (as occurs with Nelson's standardized technique) did not adversely affect cell appearances. The optimized method was applied to a group of 50 patients with dry eyes. CIC features were correlated with symptoms, clinical test results, and serum and tear protein levels of dry eye patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Optics, University of Alabama, Birmingham 35294-4390.
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Vadrevu
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Fullard
mesh_terms: D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000473:pathology*; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005374:Filtration; D006801:Humans; D011897:Random Allocation; D012395:Rose Bengal
chemical_list: D012395:Rose Bengal