[Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. Laboratory study of patients infected with adenovirus type 8]

The authors tried to detect, using different methods, the causal agent of the disease in eight patients with epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. From the conjunctival sacs of one ambulatory patient and six of seven patients hospitalized on account of other eye diseases they isolated 11 strains of adenovirus type 8 on cell cultures from human embryonic lungs. Using direct and indirect ELISA, they detected adenovirus antigen in four of seven examined smears from the conjunctival sac without previous cultivation. In smears from the nasopharynx they did not detect adenoviruses by either of the two methods. Antibodies were assessed by micromodifications of the virus neutralizing test, by the complement fixation reaction and ELISA. A significant rise of antibodies against adenovirus type 8 and adenovirus hexone resp. was found in different six of eight examined pairs of sera. The combination of these three serological methods made it possible to confirm adenovirus infection in all eight patients.