PURPOSE: To evaluate the therapeutic response of ocular allergies through exfoliative cytology of conjunctival scrappings. METHOD: Conjunctival exfoliative cytology was performed through a prospective study in forty six eyes of twenty-three patients with clinical diagnosis of allergic conjunctivitis. Three scrappings were performed: (1) in the pre-treatment period, (2) after use of corticosteroids (treatment A) and (3) after use of mast cell stabilizer (treatment B); in two types of smears, with and without albumin. The smears were stained with Giemsa. RESULTS: Of the twenty-three patients, five (21.7%) were female and eighteen (78.3%) male, with an average of 10.8 years. Eighteen (78.3%) presented vernal conjunctivitis and five (21.7%) atopic keratoconjunctivitis. After statistical analysis of the conjunctival cytology, the number of degenerate epithelial cells was higher in the two treatment groups in relation to the pre-treatment period. The number of neutrophils was smaller in the A treatment group than in the B treatment and pre-treatment groups. Regarding the number of eosinophils, the two treatments presented a lower percentile distribution than that of the pre-treatment period. The number of monocytes was smaller after the A treatment than the B group and the pre-treatment period. CONCLUSION: Exfoliative conjunctival cytology is an appropriate test to evaluate the therapeutic response in ocular allergies.
Conjunctivitis, allergic; Conjunctivitis, allergic; Cells count; Eosinophils; Cytological techniques
