Conjunctival eosinophils in allergic ocular disease.

Tarsal conjunctival scrapings of 317 patients with allergic ocular disease demonstrated that eosinophils were found infrequently in scrapings of patients with mild allergic conditions and were found in only 63% (17/27) of the patients with vernal conjunctivitis. In similar studies of a 12-year-old boy with vernal keratoconjunctivitis, no eosinophils were recovered in his scraping, even though 12 eosinophils were found in five high-power fields of his biopsy specimen. We conclude that eosinophils present in the deep and superficial conjunctival tissues may not be recovered in scrapings; their absence from scrapings should not preclude the diagnosis of allergic ocular disease.