[Laboratory diagnosis of chronic forms of ophthalmic herpes].

The duration and pattern of the course of herpes virus infection of the eye and the method used were shown to influence the effectiveness of the laboratory diagnosis. In the first two weeks of the disease conjunctival scrappings should be examined by immunofluorescence and virus isolation by intracerebral inoculation of mice, at later periods by immunofluorescence of conjunctival scrappings or infected cell cultures. Isolated herpes uveitis should be diagnosed by demonstration of viremia. In surgical treatment of herpetic eye diseases virus should be demasked from the cornea by cocultivation of its fragments with human embryo fibroblast culture.