Pemphigus of the conjunctiva : report of a case with microscopic findings / by Walter Baer Weidler.

  • Weidler, Walter Baer.
Date:
[1912]
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Credit: Pemphigus of the conjunctiva : report of a case with microscopic findings / by Walter Baer Weidler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    epithelium. Th'is cpitlielium had lost totally its normal character. From the deepest layers to the most super- ficial it consisted of horny cells. It was 30 microns thick and separated easily from the underlying con- iunctiva. Baumler==' reports a case and gives about tJie same^ findings except that he mentions a hypertrophy and a papillary formation of the epithelium. Collins- has made a contribution to our knowledge of this disease by reporting the macroscopic and microscopic findings of two cases of pemphigus of the conjunctiva. In the first case he found from the macroscopic study that the cornea showed a great convexity and that on the anterior surface of the cornea there Avas a layer of tissue quite different from the normal epithelium. The iris was atrophied and attached to the posterior surface of the cornea. The lens was shrunken and adherent to the cornea. The vitreous fluid and retina were in situ. There was cupping of the optic nerve head. Microscopi- cally viewed, he found the epithelial layer of the cornea thickened and a number of finger-like processes dipping down into the fibrous layer of the cornea, several areas of round-cell infiltration, and a number of new blood- vessels. Descemet's membrane was absent in places. In the second case the findings were very much the same. Microscopic examination of a small portion of the conjunc- tiva excised from the lower culdesac of the right eye of my case revealed the following: The specimen was hai'dened in formaldehyd solution and the gradual increasing alcohols, and stained in hematoxylin and eosin. The outer portion of the specimen was made up of round cells in great ahundance and blood-vessels, making a partial capsule around the central fibrinous material. In the outer edge of the specimen were seen necrotic changes in the cellular proliferation. This outer limiting edge showed some flat cells and some tendency to horni- fication. There was great invasion of leukocytes throughout, more or less centralized in spots. At places eosinophils were seen. There was a most remarkable increase of blood-vessels; these should more properly be called blood-paths, as they did not have well-formed vessel walls. Some of the larger ones had a well-formed wall of cells without the formation of the different coats. These blood-paths were well filled with red blood-corpuscles. The leukocytes, which made up tlie greater portion of the section, presented all the different stages of cell division. In the center of the section there was a mass which 2.5. Ranmler, Zoh : K!In. Monatsbl. f. Auu;enli.. 1S85, xxiii, 33. '2i;. Collins ; Tr. Oplith. Soc. U. Kingdom, 181)0. p. 02.