Method for visualization of conjunctival cells using fluoroquinolone antibiotics and method for diagnosis of ocular lesions using the same

Abstract

A method for visualization of conjunctival cells using fluoroquinolone antibiotics and a method for diagnosis of ocular lesions using the same. The method for visualization of conjunctival cells using fluoroquinolone antibiotics includes staining goblet cells of ocular conjunctiva with moxifloxacin, which is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, and exciting the stained goblet cells with single photons in the near-UV region or in the visible region, followed by fluorescence photographing of the goblet cells, thereby enabling acquisition of morphological information on living tissue without damage to or destruction of the ocular conjunctiva. Specifically, the method for visualization of conjunctival cells includes: a conjunctiva staining step in which ocular conjunctiva is stained with a fluoroquinolone antibiotic; a light irradiation step in which the ocular conjunctiva stained with the fluoroquinolone antibiotic is irradiated with light from a light source; and a conjunctiva photographing step in which the ocular conjunctiva is photographed using an image pickup unit through the fluoroquinolone antibiotic fluorescence-excited by light in the light irradiation step, wherein, in the conjunctiva staining step, goblet cells of the ocular conjunctiva are stained with the fluoroquinolone antibiotic; in the light irradiation step, the light source emits single photons; and, in the conjunctiva photographing step, the image pickup unit photographing the ocular conjunctiva is a high-magnification fluorescence microscope or a slit lamp microscope.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.