Quantitative determination of histamine in tears during conjunctivitis by a novel HPLC method.
The histamine content of tears of healthy sex- and age-matched subjects and patients affected by allergic or nonallergic inflammatory ocular diseases was determined through a new competitive reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Tear samples from 50 healthy subjects, 30 patients affected by seasonal allergic conjunctivitis, 12 patients with bacterial conjunctivitis associated with Haemophilus influenzae and 8 patients with bacterial conjunctivitis associated with Streptococcus pneumoniae were analyzed for histamine concentration by O-phthaldialdehyde precolumn derivatization-based HPLC. In physiological conditions, the tear histamine content was low (2.26 ng/ml) and did not vary in relation to age and sex. Histamine levels were significantly higher in all the patients studied, to a greater extent in those affected by allergic (23.61 ng/ml) or Haemophilus influenzae-associated (21.53 ng/ml) conjunctivitis.
Department of Experimental Pathology and Microbiology, University of Messina, Azienda Policlinico Universitario, Messina, Italy.
Isabella
I
Venza
Maria
M
Visalli
Guglielmo
G
Ceci
Diana
D
Teti
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D003233:Conjunctivitis, Allergic / Q000378:metabolism*; D003234:Conjunctivitis, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006192:Haemophilus Infections / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D006632:Histamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011008:Pneumococcal Infections / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology; D013666:Tears / Q000378:metabolism*
D006632:Histamine