Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to examine conjunctival and anterior lens capsule specimens in affected and unaffected eyes.
Main Outcome Measure
Presence of characteristic pseudoexfoliation syndrome findings on TEM.
Results
Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated pseudoexfoliative material on either the anterior capsule or conjunctival sample from the clinically unaffected eye in 26 of the 32 patients with clinically unilateral pseudoexfoliation syndrome (81%; 95% confidence interval, 64%–93%).
Conclusion
The results suggest that the seemingly uninvolved eye in a patient with clinically unilateral pseudoexfoliation syndrome has an 81% likelihood of being affected ultrastructurally. Several population studies examining conversion rates from unilateral to bilateral disease have found a similar proportion of patients with bilateral pseudoexfoliation syndrome in the later decades of life.
Available online: August 15, 2007.
Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland.
Correspondence to Esen Karamursel Akpek, MD, Director, Ocular Surface and Dry Eye Clinic, Wilmer Eye Institute, 600 North Wolfe Street, Maumenee Building #317, Baltimore, MD 21287-9238.
Manuscript no. 2006-1258.
Dr Parekh is supported by the A. E. Maumenee Research Grant Award of the Wilmer Eye Institute. Dr Stark is supported in part by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland, and the Helen and Raymond Kwok Research Fund, Baltimore, Maryland. Dr Akpek is supported in part by the William and Mary Greve Scholarship from Research to Prevent Blindness, New York, New York.
ABSTRACT