The importance of a study of the tears in the early diagnosis of infection in penetrating eye injuries

: Status of tears was studied in patients with penetrating wounds to the eyes using polarization optic microscopy to assess the type of morphological types of crystals, measurements of secretory IgA to assess local immunity status, and screening methods to estimate protein level from the relative coefficient. A total of 122 patients with penetrating corneal and corneoscleral wounds were examined, 48 of these without clinical signs of infection and 74 with clinical manifestations of an infection. For control 88 subjects without somatic diseases or ocular diseases were examined. Crystallography revealed predominance of two morphologic types, Nos. 3 and 5, whose crystal structures were taken as the normal types. Their detection rate was reduced in penetrating wounds to the eye. Secondary morphologic types Nos. 14 and 16 reliably predominated in "pure" injuries and a secondary morphologic type 14 M in patients with developing infection (in 19 patients this type predominated during the preclinical form of infection of the eye). Increased IgA levels were observed in patients with noninfected injuries and reduced ones during infection. An infection was found associated with reduced protein level.