[Express diagnosis of eye adenovirus infection by fluorescent antibody method]

Adenoviruses often cause epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. The infection is highly contagious, often leads to corneal opacities, and is therefore to be timely diagnosed and properly treated. The authors propose a method for rapid diagnosis of adenovirus infection based on examination of a scraping off the conjunctiva by indirect immunofluorescence with polyvalent fluorescent rabbit serum and offer recommendations on the use of this method. Using this technique, adenovirus antigen was detected in 14 (61%) out of 23 patients with acute follicular conjunctivitis and in 19 (95%) out of 20 patients with keratoconjunctivitis. Despite clinical cure after antiviral therapy, the antigen persisted for 1 month in 22-30% patients and in some patients for 3 months (as a rule, it was in patients treated too late or ineffectively or after corticosteroids). That is why maintenance antivirus therapy is recommended for 2-3 months after clinical cure.