RESUMO
Adenosine deaminase(ADA)has been used for the diagnosis of localized tuberculosis.The titer of ADA was measured from the ocular fluid of the patients who had undergone vitreoretinal surgery due to non-tuberculous vitreoretinal disease. Forty five patients were included and twenty patients were male. Mean age was 51.9 years. Four patients had diabetes mellitus and two had essential hypertension. The most frequent cause of vitreoretinal surgery was proliferative vitreoretinopathy(12 eyes). For the analysis of ADA titer, vitreous fluid(group I)was aspirated in 36 patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy and subretinal fluid(group II)in 9 patients undergoing scleral encircling. Mean titer of ADA was 9.01+/-15.69 IU/L, and there was no significant difference on the statistics between group I(6.06+/-13.75 IU/L)and group II(20.83+/-18.17 IU/L). All 45 eyes showed negative reaction to polymerase chain againt tuberculosis, and 25 of 29 patients had positive reaction to tuberculin skin test. There was no statistically significant relationship between ADA titer and tuberculin skin test. This result suggests that ADA may be used for the diagnosis of posterior ocular tuberculosis, since the normal concentration in the posterior ocular fluid was compatible with the one in other body fluids where it has been used for the diagnosis of localized tuberculosis.