[Ocular manifestations in mansonelliasis].

Purpose: To evaluate eye manifestations in mansonelliasis patients from Coari, AM, rural area on the middle Amazonas River.

Methods: Cross-sectional study consisted of evaluation of 543 subjects from Coari rural area on Solimões River right margin. All subjects were submitted to blood test for microfilaria and the subjects who had a positive test also were submitted to skin biopsies and ophthalmologic examination. Histopathology and PCR research for microfilaria were done on eye biopsies of suspect lesions.

Results: Mansonella ozzardi was found in peripheral blood of 103 (18.9%) subjects. Ninety-five mansonelliasis patients were examined. Punctate keratitis was observed in 12 of them, nummular keratitis in one subject and sclerosing keratitis in another one. Skin biopsies were negative in all subjects. Conjunctival and limbal biopsies were done in five mansonelliasis patients and corneal biopsy in another three patients. Conjunctival and limbal biopsies of two patients and corneal biopsy of one patient showed no microfilaria or alterations due to its presence on histopathology. PCR showed no evidence of microfilaria in the other biopsies.

Conclusion: Association between Mansonella ozzardi infection and corneal lesions with no evident etiology was observed in this study, but the lack of conclusive findings on histopathology and PCR make us doubt the corneal involvement in mansonelliasis. Large studies of high mansonelliasis prevalence populations and extensive employment of microfilaria identification tests in ocular tissue are needed to evaluate the microfilaria corneal pathogenicity.