Preliminary clinical report of alternate episodes of Posner-Schlossman syndrome and viral keratitis.

Posner-Schlossman syndrome (PSS) and viral keratitis have a shared pathogen and are common diseases in China, but there are few case reports on whether these two diseases occur concurrently or alternately. After long-term clinical observations, six patients with alternating episodes of PSS and viral keratitis were confirmed at our hospital in the past 10 years. Of the six patients, three were female and three were male. Four patients had monocular PSS with ipsilateral monocular viral keratitis, one had monocular PSS with bilateral viral keratitis, and one had bilateral PSS with bilateral viral keratitis. Of the six cases, three had epithelial viral keratitis and three had endothelial viral keratitis. In four cases, the interval between the onset of the two diseases ranged from 8 days to 3 years, and two cases showed overlapping manifestations of the two diseases in 3 to 6 days, both with incomplete absorption of keratic precipitates. The six cases had intermittent episodes of both diseases and significant loss of corneal sensation during the onset of viral keratitis, and were effectively treated with antiviral therapy. PSS and viral keratitis may alternate episodically, and clinical attention should be paid to these conditions. The mechanism of the alternate episodes might be associated with viral infection and the use of glucocorticoids.

A novel technique for staining bulk grids bearing ultrathin sections.

This article proposes a technique for staining bulk grids bearing ultrathin sections with a silicone device consisting of a base plate and a depression bar. Specifically, bulk grids were loaded into the holes on the base plate in order, and then the depression bar was inserted into the slot of the plate to fix the inner edges of the grids and thereby form several separated cells to facilitate the subsequent staining and washing procedures. The results showed that the proposed technique can improve handling efficiency, safety and identification of grids during staining courses.

Self-retaining contact lens simplifies intravitreal injection course in rats.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to design a self-retaining rat contact lens to simplify intravitreous injection in rats. MATERIAL/METHODS: A self-retaining, plane-concave prism contact lens customized for rats was designed. Forty diabetic rats were randomly divided into 2 groups and received the intravitreous injection of 10 µl of a cell suspension containing bone marrow-derived stroma cell (BMSC). Group A: used a microsyringe and a rat contact lens (n=20). Group B: used the same microsyringe and a traditional cover-slip (n=20).The duration of the intravitreous injection course and the success rate of intravitreous injection were observed. RESULTS: With the use of a self-retaining rat contact lens, a clear and stable view of the rat fundus was provided and the intravitreous injection course of rats quickly achieved, averaging 4.65±0.53 min in Group A and 12.33±2.79 min in Group B. The difference was statistically significant, and the time saved averaged 7.68 min. None of the Group A rats had retinal bleeding or lens injury; whereas 2 of 20 Group B rats had bleeding and 1 of 20 had lens injury. There was no significant difference between the rats in Group A and Group B. CONCLUSIONS: A self-retaining rat contact lens is a potentially powerful instrument that allows high-quality observation of the rat fundus and simplifies the course of intravitreal injection.