Abstract
Purpose :
Blepharitis is one of the most common diseases encountered by ophthalmologists in their daily practice. One of the causes of severe marginal blepharitis is the presence of Demodex mites which are the most common ectoparasites in humans. To determine whether the Löffler's alkaline methylene blue staining method is a better way to detect Demodex mites in the eyelashes of patients with blepharitis.
Methods :
Eyelashes were collected from 22 patients with blepharitis. The mean age of the patients was 82.5 ±6.2 years (± standard deviation) with a range from 71 to 93 years. The methylen blue solution is made by a tenfold dilution of the original solution with saline before use every day. Eyelashes were collected by forceps and placed individually on microscope slides. The number of Demodex mites was determined by conventional optical microscopy before and immediately after the addition of the methylene blue staining solution.
Results :
The Demodex count before the addition of the methylene blue solution was 2.9 ± 2.9, and it was 4.4± 3.9 after the addition of the methylene blue solution (P<0.01, Wilcoxon test). The Demodex mite is more easily detected in the heavy opaque dandruff after the methylene blue staining.
Conclusions :
The methylene blue staining method is simple and useful as an accurate detection method for determining the presence and quantifying the number of Demodex mites. We recommend the methylene blue straining method not only for the diagnosis of the presence of Demodex mites but also for the evaluation of therapeutic effects of medications to eliminate the mite infestation.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.