Inflammatory cellular kinetics in sympathetic ophthalmia a study of 29 traumatized (exciting) eyes.

An immunohistochemical study was conducted on 29 cases of sympathetic ophthalmia (SO). Monoclonal antibodies against T, B, NK cells, macrophages, and MHC class II antigen (HLA-DR) were used. The choroidal infiltrate in 20 eyes was predominantly T cell while B cell predominated in four cases. All eyes with a B cell predominance came from males. A predominance of B cells was correlated to a longer duration of the disease (> 9 months) and in eyes showing phthisical changes. There was no correlation between a predominance of B cells with age, race, corticosteroid treatment or histological type (typical or atypical). These findings suggest that, although SO is a T cell mediated disease, the predominance of B cells in some cases may represent the end stage of the disease process, or seems a secondary pathological process. The kinetic change in cell populations during the disease may have therapeutic implication.