Using Conjunctival Swab with Polymerase Chain Reaction to Aid Diagnosis of Cytomegalovirus Retinitis in AIDS Patients

Abstract

Conjunctival swabs were used in combination with polymerase chain reactions (PCR) or virus culture to aid to confirm the diagnosis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis in AIDS patients. Based on ophthalmoscopic findings, 13 AIDS patients were diagnosed as having CMV retinitis and treated with systemic ganciclovir from January 1997 to December 1998. Nine of 13 AIDS patients with CMV retinitis were found to be positive for CMV DNA by using a conjunctival swab with PCR (CS-PCR). CMV was also isolated from the conjunctival swab culture in 2 AIDS patients with CMV retinitis. Following 1 month of systemic ganciclovir treatment, except for 1 patient who had disease progression and remained positive for CMV DNA by using CS-PCR, 12 patients were negative for CMV with a concordant lesion regression. Results of this study also indicate that this CS-PCR method is valuable for confirming the diagnosis of CMV retinitis and monitoring the ganciclovir effect on the treatment of CMV retinitis in AIDS patients.

Schirmer strip and conjunctival swab for viral detection on the ocular surface of adults: a scoping review

“…This study was published in 2000 and aimed to verify the e cacy of intravenous ganciclovir treatment in immunocompromised AIDS patients with CMV retinitis. The results showed a high clinical relevance for con rming and differentiating the diagnoses of CMV retinitis when ophthalmoscopic ndings were associated with PCR methods on conjunctival swab samples [48]. No other studies on the topic were found in this review, probably because the incidence of CMV retinitis in the AIDS population signi cantly decreased with the introduction of effective antiretroviral therapy and early accurate diagnosis [54][55][56][57].…”

“…Most studies were on AdV [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and HSV [21,25,28,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], followed by SARS-CoV-2 [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. VZV [31][32][33], CMV [31,32,48], EBV [31,32], EBO [49,50], HPV [51] and Zika virus [52] have also been identi ed on the ocular surface, but there are still few studies on this topic.…”

Schirmer strip and conjunctival swab for viral detection on the ocular surface of adults: a scoping review

“…This study was published in 2000 and aimed to verify the e cacy of intravenous ganciclovir treatment in immunocompromised AIDS patients with CMV retinitis. The results showed a high clinical relevance for con rming and differentiating the diagnoses of CMV retinitis when ophthalmoscopic ndings were associated with PCR methods on conjunctival swab samples (49) . No other studies on the topic were found in this review, probably because the incidence of CMV retinitis in the Acquired Immunode ciency Syndrome (AIDS) population signi cantly decreased with the introduction of effective antiretroviral therapy and early accurate diagnosis (56)(57)(58)(59) .…”

Schirmer strip and conjunctival swab for viral detection on the ocular surface of adults: a scoping review

“…Most studies were on AdV (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31) and HSV (22,26,29,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40) , followed by SARS-CoV-2 (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48) . VZV (32)(33)(34) , Cytomegalovirus (CMV) (33,34,49) , EBV (33,34) , Ebola (EBO ) (50,51) , Human papillomavirus (HPV) (52) and Zika virus (53) have also been identi ed on the ocular surface. The evolution of published articles on AdV, HSV and SARS-CoV-2 is represented in Fig.…”