Owl's eye appearance

Owl's eye appearance, also known as owl's eye sign, is a pattern used in the medical field to describe cells (or cell attributes) that resemble the shape of an actual owl's eye. Using the techniques of histology and radiology, microscopes and other medical imaging are used to locate this pattern of "owl's eye" shaped cells. The term may be applied to the appearance of the cells themselves, or to aspects of their morphology, such as reference to an "owl eye nucleus". The presence of "owl's eye" cells has been linked to a variety of conditions, such as in the pathology of Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. In particular, owl's eye appearance has been used to indicate the presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV), a genus of virus found in humans and other primates.

The description "owl's eye" may refer to:

• Cells with perinuclear vacuolization around centrally located pyknotic nuclei, such as typically seen in flat warts.^[1]
• The appearance of inclusion bodies within the cell, which is highly specific for cytomegalovirus infection (CMV).^[2]
• The appearance of the entire nucleus, as found in Reed–Sternberg cells in individuals with Hodgkin's lymphoma.