Abstract
Purpose::
To clarify the clinical characteristics of adenovirus (HAdV) keratoconjunctivitis(KC), we compared the clinical findings of the patients with adenovirus KC with those with non adenovirus KC.
Methods::
We examined the clinical findings of 102 patients who were suspected to have adenovirus KC from August to October, 2003 and analysed the conjunctival swabs obtained from these patients by PCR method. As clinical findings we focused on five items such as bilaterality, incidence of intrafamilial infection, multiple subepithelial corneal infiltrates(MSI), preauricular lymphadenopathy and severity of conjunctivitis. Viral DNA was extracted from conjunctival swabs and then DNA restriction analysis was performed with eight kinds of restriction endonucleases. The entirety of each hexon gene and fiber gene was amplified by the PCR method and then the nucleotide sequences of the entire hexon and fiber genes were determined.
Results::
Out of 102 patients, 68 cases (66.7%) were potive for adenovirus by PCR method. Regarding the clinical findings, bilaterality(82.4% vs. 29.4%), intrafamilial infection(46.2% vs. 0%) and MSI(40% vs. 0%) were seen much higher in patients with adenovirus KC (P under 0.01). HAdV-8,19 and 37 were isolated from the patients with adenovirus KC.
Conclusions::
Clinical characteristics of adenovirus KC have been said to be follicular conjunctivitis, MSI and preauricular lymphadenopathy. However, the results of this study clearly indicate bilaterality, intrafamilial infection and MSI have more potent clinical values for the diagnosis of adenovirus KC.
Keywords: adenovirus • conjunctivitis • inflammation