Background: Mycotic keratitis is a fungal infection of the cornea. This infection is difficult to treat and it can lead to severe visual impairment or blindness. It is worldwide in distribution, but is more common in the tropics and subtropical regions. Trauma is the major predisposing factor, followed by ocular and systemic defects, prior application of corticosteroids, and prolonged use of an...

Cumulative biomicroscopic evidence is usually sufficient for the diagnosis of recurrent corneal erosion or bullous keratopathy, however, exploration of the disease pathogenesis requires subcellular-level visualization of corneal structure. In the current study, lanthanoid staining and scanning electron microscopy were employed to visualize quite a number of structures responsible for epithelium...

Aim. To describe keratitis due to Chaetomium sp. occurring in a 65-year-old woman who presented with a corneal ulcer with hypopyon of the right eye with a history of trauma by vegetable matter. Method. Multiple scrapings were obtained from the ulcer. A lactophenol cotton blue wet mount and a Gram-stained smear of the scrapings were made. Scrapings were also inoculated onto various culture media...

The Cellient Automated Cell Block System (Hologic) can be used to process cervical scrapes to paraffin sections. For the first study on this subject, cervical scrapes were fixed in the formalin-free fixative BoonFix. This pilot study was limited to cases classified as atypical squamous lesion of unknown significance (ASCUS) and high-grade squamous lesion (HSIL) as diagnosed in the ThinPrep slid...

PURPOSE To evaluate a bacterial dot hybridization (BDH) assay for the diagnosis of bacterial keratitis (BK). METHODS Sixty-one qualified corneal scrapings from 61 patients with suspected microbial keratitis were collected consecutively and prospectively. Among the 61 patients, 16 cases were BK and 45 cases were non-BK, including fungal keratitis, viral keratitis, parasitic keratitis, and non-...

The epidemiology of microbial keratitis has been investigated in several studies by analysis of organisms cultured from corneal scrapes. However, a comparison of the frequency of different organisms causing keratitis in different parts of the world is lacking. The authors present a review incorporating an analysis of data from studies worldwide. The data provide a comparison of the frequency of...

AIMS To determine the quantitative relation between the major risk factors for microbial keratitis of previous ocular surface disease and contact lens wear and central and peripheral infiltration, often associated with ulceration, in order to establish a rational chemotherapeutic management algorithm. METHODS Data from 55 patients were collected over a 10 month period. All cases of presumed m...

PURPOSE To report a case of acyclovir-resistant herpetic keratitis in a solid-organ lung transplant recipient that was effectively treated with topical trifluridine. METHODS A case of a 35-year-old female with herpetic epithelial keratitis resistant to acyclovir is described. The patient presented following treatment for 4 weeks with topical acyclovir ointment five times per day and oral vala...

Mate selection influences individual fitness, is often based on complex cues and behaviours, and can be difficult to study in solitary species including carnivores. We used motion-triggered cameras at 29 community scrapes (i.e. scent marking locations used by multiple individuals) and home range data from 39 GPS-collared pumas (Puma concolor) to assess the relevance of communication behaviours ...