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.