Ocular Form of Larval Toxocariasis in Czech Republic

Overview

The damage of the eye is one of the clinical syndromes of the Toxocara infection,caused by the migration activity of the Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati larvae.Ocular larva migrans (OLM) lesions mostly occur unilaterally and frequently arediagnosed as retinoblastoma. The typical symptoms of OLM are presented in ourpublication. The first signs of the ocular infection most often include diminishedvision, leukocoria, red eye and strabismus. Inflammatory intraocular reaction,caused as a response to the antigens, released from dead or dying larvae is oftendiagnosed. The living larvae are observed very rarely.The reason and a way of the ocular invasion are still not sufficiently cleared. Thesupposition that the ocular syndrome is causedbymigration of single larvae, whenthe immunological response is light, was not reliably verified. Sometimes if theinfection size was heavy, the eye can be invaded with systemic complications aswell.The most common laboratory findings include an elevation of the immunoglobu-lins in the serum of the patient and the presence of Toxocara specific antibodiesresponse in the vitreous and/or aqueous humor. An analysis of the humor in cases of presumptive OLMwas made only in 8 patients because not all oculists are readyto take this material, mainly in children.Highly sensitive assay - ELISA reaction with specific excretory - secretory antigen(TES) was used. For discrimination between chronic and recent infection themethod of measuring IgG avidity was applied.

Key words:
ocular form of larval toxocariasis, avidity IgG, ELISA reaction andocular toxocariasis, Baylisascaris procyonis