ABSTRACT
Purpose: To investigate the correlations between conjunctival inflammatory status and meibomian gland (MG) morphology in vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients by using in vivo confocal microscopy (CM). Materials and Methods: Nineteen VKC patients (7 limbal, 7 tarsal, and 5 mixed forms) and 16 normal volunteers (controls) were enrolled. All subjects underwent CM scanning to obtain the images of upper palpebral conjunctiva and MGs. Inflammatory cell (IC) density in palpebral conjunctival epithelial and stromal layers, Langerhans cell (LC) density at lid margins and the stroma adjacent to the MG, and MG acinar unit density (MGAUD) were recorded. The longest and shortest diameters of MG acinar were measured. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to compare the parameter differences whereas the Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was applied to determine their correlations. Results: Among all groups, no significant statistical differences were found in epithelial and stromal IC densities, mean values of MG acinar unit densities, or longest and shortest diameters. Both LC parameters in the tarsal‑mixed groups were significantly higher than those in the limbal and control groups. All LC densities of VKC patients showed a positive correlation with MGAUD and shortest diameter. Conclusions: In VKC patients, the conjunctival inflammatory status could be associated with the MG status. In vivo CM is a noninvasive, efficient tool in the assessment of MG status and ocular surface.
ABSTRACT
In order to elucidate the host animals of scrub typhus in Shandong Province, epidemiological studies on host rodents of the autumn-winter type scrub typhus were carried out from 1995 to 2002 at four localities in the Shandong Province. Based upon ecological observations of the composition, seasonal fluctuation of animal hosts, isolation of Orientia tsutsugamushi, detection and identification of serotypes of antibodies to O. tsutsugamushi were conducted. Two thousand eight hundred and eighty-four rodents and insectivores were captured, including 2,055 Apodemus agrarius (71.26%), 408 Cricetulus triton (14.15%), 64 C. barabensis (2.22%), 12 Crocidura suaveolens (0.42%), 313 Rattus (R.) norvegicus (10.85%), 32 Mus (M.) musculus (1.11%). A. agrarius was predominant in the field and the seasonal fluctuation was correlated significantly to that of scrub typhus (r=0.810, p<0.005). R. norvegicus was predominant indoors. The average capture rate per year in the field was 12.76% from 1995 to 1997. Of the total 2,884 rodents and insectivores captured out- and in-doors, 527 were living rodents (including 335 A. agrarius, 119 C. triton, 6 C. barabensis, 2 C. suaveolens, 63 R. norvegicus and 2 M. musculus, and 15,467 chigger mites were collected from them. Two hundred and fifty-three of 335 A. agrarius were parasitized by chiggers, showing 75.52% (253/335) of the infestation rate and 17.53 of the chigger index; 106 C. triton were parasitized by chiggers, showing 89.08% (106/119) infestation rate and 75.93 of the chigger index. The average antibody positive rate of rodents was 14.78%. The seasonal change of the antibody positive rate was higher during December-February (the second year), and varied from 20% to 28%, but the level of antibodies remained relatively low (5.26-16.67%) during March-November. The results of serotyping with 47 antibody-positive sera were as followings: 39 sera were Gilliam types, 7 sera were Karp types, 1 serum was Kato type. Twelve strains of O. tsutsugamushi were isolated from A. agrarius (8 strains), C. triton (3 strains) and R. norvegicus (1 strain), out of the isolated 12 strains, 10 were Gilliam strains, 2 were Karp strains. A. agrarius and R. norvegicus were the main host animals in out- and indoors respectively.