Rapid Identification of Human Adenoviruses and Cytokine Estimation among Patients with Epidemic Keratoconjunctivitis in Babylon Governorate, Iraq

One hundred seventy five conjunctival swabs were collected from patients with keratoconjunctivitis. All swabs were cultured on Blood agar and MacConkey agar , 82 positive bacterial culture isolates were excluded and 93 negative bacterial culture isolates were taken as a study samples. All 93 swabs were subjected to rapid immunochromatography test (IC) test. The results of rapid identification revealed that 79 specimens (84.9%) were found positive for human adenoviruses , whereas 14 specimens (15.1%) were found negative for human adenoviruses. In addition , the results indicated that the positive rate of the IC test for specimens obtained within 1–5 days after of the onset of illness 59 (74.7%) were significantly higher than that for specimens obtained within 6–10 days after of the onset of illness 20 (25.3%) at P-value < 0.05.Tear samples were also collected from both (30) patients and (25) controls to estimate the tear levels of some immune parameters Interleukine-6  (IL-6), Interlukine-8 (IL-8), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by ELISA (Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay) method .The cytokine profile showed that there is a significant increase (P<0.05) in the mean tear concentration of each (IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α) between EKC patients and control groups , and the result showed that IL-8 was the predominant cytokine released and followed by IL-6 and TNF-α . Keywords: Adenovirus, Keratoconjunctivitis, Immunochromatography test, Cytokin