This study was designed to evaluate the incidence of adenovirus keratocoryunctivitis among patients complaining of keratocortjunctivitis and control group without conjunctivitis by using immunofluorescent staining of specimens prepared from conjunctival swabs and imrnunofluorescent staining after cell culture and compare between results. This study was carried out on two groups: group (I) 50 patients suffering from conjunctivitis, and group (I1) 20 individuals with ophthalmologic compliant rather than conjunctivitis. Adenovirus antigen was detected in 45 cases (90%) out of 50 cases having viral conjunctivitis by using immunofluorescent staining of samples taken by swabs and 30 cases (60%) of them were positive for the presence of adenovirus antigen in their specimens by using cell culture technique, while adenovirus antigen was detected also in 33 cases (66%) by using imrrturtofluorescence after cell culture. In conclusion: immunofluorescent staining of swabs can be used as rapid screen- ing test in diagnosis of adenovirus infection in large number of patients as it can be done within 30 minutes, but we can't depend on it as a defin- itive method of diagnosis because its specificity is very Low and must be confirmed by cell culture which is considered to be the gold standard method for identification of adenovirus infection. |
