PURPOSE OF REVIEW To highlight the most important causes of acquired corneal scarring and infiltrates in children. The lack of recognition of these disorders can lead to long-term visual loss in children. RECENT FINDINGS There have been few articles on this topic in the recent ophthalmic literature, but all have stressed the need for early diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. SUMMARY ...

BACKGROUND We evaluate the role of nerve growth factor (NGF) eye drops to treat a herpetic corneal ulcer resistant to systemic and local acyclovir treatment in an HIV-positive patient. CASE PRESENTATION A 68 year old HIV-positive male presented with a herpetic corneal ulcer which was treated unsuccessfully with acyclovir. Acyclovir sensitivity of herpes simplex virus was tested with a dye upt...

Herpes simplex keratitis (HSK) is an inflammatory response to viral infection and self antigens in the cornea and is a major cause of blindness. Using two strains of mice which are susceptible (129/SVEV) and resistant (C57BL/6) to herpes simplex virus (HSV) strain KOS, (129/SVEV x C57BL/6)F(2) mice were generated and examined for their disease susceptibility in terms of clinical symptoms, ocula...

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) latency in sensory ganglion neurons is well documented, but the existence of extraneuronal corneal latency is less well defined. To investigate the possibility of extraneuronal latency during ocular HSV infection, corneal specimens from 18 patients with quiescent herpes simplex keratitis (HSK) were obtained at the time of keratoplasty. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ...

Two techniques are described which enable a rapid diagnosis of herpes simplex keratitis to be made. The tests, antibody/antigen reactions, were shown to be accurate and sensitive in the 119 patients examined. A result is available within four hours with the indirect peroxidase-antiperoxidase method and within one hour with the direct method. The techniques are relatively inexpensive, though lab...