Clinical features and virologic studies in viral retinitis

Viral retinitis is an important infectious disease of the retina which can occur in both healthy and immunocompromized or immunodeficient individuals. The clinical picture and the role of laboratory studies in diagnosis of viral retinitis are still not well-defined. We correlated the clinical picture and virologic study in the serum and vitreous specimens by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), rapid immunofluorescence technique and culture in five clinically suspected patients of viral retinitis. None of the patients had any evidence of systemic viral infections. In four patients, the virus was detected by immunofluorescence, ELISA or culture from the vitreous sample. Paired serum samples showed elevation of antiviral IgG titre in two cases and high antiviral IgM titre in all cases. Our study evaluated the role of virological investigations of vitreous aspirate and rising antibody titre in the paired serum samples in the diagnosis of active viral retinitis.