Chlamydial conjunctivitis in neonates and adults. History, clinical findings and follow-up.

This study presents data from 73 neonatal and 60 adult patients with chlamydial conjunctivitis who were studied by culture, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunofluorescence (IF) tests. All patients had visited three or more doctors before the diagnosis was established. Fourteen of the adults had consulted an ophthalmological emergency unit complaining of a foreign body sensation in the eye. The symptoms started monocularly in all 133 cases, however, the fellow eye was affected after 2-7 days in 54 of the neonates and in 5-30 days in 20 of the adult patients. The duration of symptoms before the etiological diagnosis was established was 5-198 days (mean 24 and median 15 days) in the neonates and 7-120 (mean 29 and median 22 days) in the adults. The conjunctivitis was mild, moderate and severe in 7, 72 and 48 of the neonatal eyes, when the etiological diagnosis was established. The corresponding figures for severity of conjunctivitis in the adult group were 9, 57 and 14. Nasopharyngeal colonization occurred in 56 (77%) of the children and in 35 (58%) of the adults. In the adults, only two males complained of symptoms of genital infection. In 46 (77%) adults one or more of the chlamydial diagnostic tests performed on genital samples was positive for Chlamydia trachomatis. Forty-five of the neonates were treated with erythromycin 40-50 mg per kg body weight divided in four daily doses for 14 days, while 35 of the adults were given 250 mg x 4 x 14 of erythromycin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)