Occult haemolacria in females.

A series of 125 healthy subjects were examined by the stix method (chemical response) for occult occurrence of blood in tears. Blood was found in 18% of fertile women, definitely most often in the menstrual phase (in 39% of 51 samples within the first week, reckoned from the first day of menstruation). The incidence was independent of use of the contraceptive pill. On the other hand, occult haemolacria was observed in no more than 7% (= 30) of pregnant women and in none at the menopause (N = 7). Among males the phenomenon was noticed in 8% (N = 24). Occult haemolacria in fertile women thus seems to be induced by hormones, whereas haemolacria most often is provoked by local factors (bacterial conjunctivitis, environmental damage, injuries).

[Treatment of corneal abrasion]. / Behandlingen af abrasio corneae.

Forty patients with corneal epithelial defects were randomized into two groups. Group 1 (twenty patients) were treated with chloramphenicol ointment and an eye patch for six hours followed by chloramphenicol eyedrops six time a day for six days. Group 2 (twenty patients) were treated with chloramphenicol ointment and double eye patches for twenty-four hours as the only treatment. The patients were examined the next day, and again after a week. Two patients defected in group 1 and two patients from group 1 were excluded from the experiment because they failed to improve after three and four days, respectively. Five patients from group 2 defected. Corneal epithelial wound healing was found to be significantly faster in the group treated with double eye patches and the patients' subjective problems in this group were significantly less. (Significant with a probability less than 1%).

Acute optic neuritis with normal visual acuity. Comparison of symptoms and signs with psychophysiological, electrophysiological and magnetic resonance imaging data.

In a prospective study of hitherto 70 patients with acute optic neuritis (ON), 18 patients aged 15-49 years (12 women, 6 men) were diagnosed as having very subtle form of ON (bilateral in 4 patients), characterized by normal visual acuity. However, their symptoms were sudden functional visual disturbances, most frequently blurred vision accompanied by pain in or around the affected eye(s). In 5 patients, the ON was a manifestation of clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS); the remaining 13 patients had monosymptomatic ON. The duration of visual symptoms ranged from 2 to 28 days (median 7 days) at the time of examination. Although 18 patients had a normal visual acuity, i.e. 6/6 c.c. (Snellen's notation) or better, extensive studies of the visual functions (using sensitive supplementary tests) revealed various abnormalities, primarily various visual field defects, abnormal contrast sensitivity, abnormal VEP and colour vision deficiencies (often of blue-yellow type). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain revealed demyelinating lesions in 10 of the 13 patients with monosymptomatic ON, and in all 5 patients with definite MS. The extended disease spectrum gives reason to hypothesixe that ON may occur more frequently than previously reported, and that the described subtle form of ON could be an unnotified precocious manifestation of the demyelinating disease.

Acyclovir and idoxiuridine treatment of herpes simplex keratitis--a double blind clinical study.

38 patients with herpes simplex keratitis were treated in double blind clinical trial. 18 patients (10 with pure epithelial and 8 with accompanying stromal affection) were treated with 3% acyclovir (ACV) eye ointment, and 20 patients (10 with pure epithelial and 10 with accompanying stromal affection) were treated with 0.5% idoxiuridine (IDU). The cure rate was 94% in the ACV group compared to 70% in the IDU group. This was significantly higher in the ACV group. Only minor adverse reactions were recorded.

Secretory IgA specific for herpes simplex virus in lacrimal fluid from patients with herpes keratitis--a possible diagnostic parameter.

In the present study a solid-phase radioimmune assay was used for the demonstration of herpes simplex virus-specific IgG and secretory IgA antibodies in the lacrimal fluid from patients with active recurrent herpes keratitis. The method was quantitative and made it possible to test specifically for the production of secretory IgA antibodies produced during an active herpes simplex virus infection. The production of secretory IgA was followed in 2 patients with fresh recurrent lesions. The HSV-specific secretory IgA could be demonstrated during the first 10 days of infection, where the maximal concentration was reached 3-5 days after the first symptoms occurred. The secretory antibodies were locally produced, and it is shown for the first time that herpes virus-specific secretory antibodies were of diagnostic value.

The significance of tears' lactate dehydrogenase in health, and external eye diseases.

The normal values of the lactate dehydrogenase contents of tears in the presence of pyruvate and lactate as substrates were determined. The quotients of the LDH values measured in the presence of the two different substrates, and also the ratio of the subunits (H and M) of the isoenzymes, differ from the corresponding data of blood serum. In the event of external inflammatory diseases of the eye, LDHp/LDHl decreases in the tears; this deviation is enhanced by treatment with drugs inhibiting protein synthesis, primarily iododeoxyuridine. Conversely, in trachoma the ratio of the LDH isoenzymes containing mainly M (muscle) subunits are increasing. In diabetes mellitus the shift of metabolism toward the citrate cycle is reflected to a larger extent by the LDH values in the blood serum than by those in tears.