Conjunctival Scrape Cytology Findings in Patients with Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease Following Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation

OBJECTIVE: To describe the conjunctival scrape cytology findings in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). STUDY DESIGN: Conjunctival scrape cytology was performed to find the cause of conjunctivitis in 20 patients with chronic conjunctival GVHD. All patients had chronic ocular symptoms such as foreign body sensation, burning, tearing and red eye. Twenty age-matched bone marrow transplant recipient without GVHD were included as a control group. RESULTS: Scraping yielded a sufficient number of cells. Cytologic findings included atypical epithelial cells; loss of goblet cells; epithelial cells with vacuolated or coarse, granular cytoplasm; squamous metaplasia; and a prominent inflammatory background. CONCLUSION: Conjunctival scrape cytology yields a sufficient number of cells in conjunctival GVHD. This method is useful for the diagnosis of complications associated with conjunctival GVHD and may be helpful in evaluating the response to treatment options.