Histologic and Immunopathologic Findings in Sympathetic Ophthalmia-Reply

In Reply.  —The comment of Dr BenEzra concerns several questions raised by our immunohistochemical investigations of a case considered as an early stage of sympathetic uveitis. We agree that some of the conclusions are based on indirect evidence, as usual, but we wonder whether the arguments put forward in this letter are any more conclusive.First, the term "early" may be misleading. One has to admit that the early pathologic stage of the disease would have to be followed by the classic picture of sympathetic uveitis, if enucleation had not been performed. This conclusion, however, is bound to remain speculative. It cannot be precluded that cases that do not fulfill all the criteria of the original description of sympathetic uveitis represent "smoldering" or "moderate" cases that Croxatto et al¹ would have called "atypical," never reaching the full expression of the granulomatous stage of the disease. Therefore, the minimal requirements