Corneal blindness is a major health problem worldwide and infectious keratitis is one of the predominant causes. The incidence of fungal keratitis has increased over the last few years. Keeping this in mind, this study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of positive fungal cultures in infectious keratitis and of the various fungal species identified as etiologic agents in patients with corneal ulcer attending the ophthalmic departments of 3 hospitals in Riyadh. Corneal scrapings from 100 patients of corneal ulcer with suspected fungal etiology were subjected to direct examination by 10% KOH and lacto-phenol cotton blue mount. Also swabs of diseased eyes were taken with sterilized swabs. The specimens were also inoculated directly on to Sabouraud’s dextrose agar in C-shaped streaks. From 100 patients of corneal ulcer investigated, only 52% of patients were positive. Males were more commonly affected than females (69.23% and 30.76%), respectively. The age of patients was ranged from 28-55 years. 18 (34.61%) patients with fungal keratitis were laborers, 15 (28.84%) teachers, 7 (13.46%) housewives, 6 (11.53%) shepherds and 6 (11.53%) were civil engineers. Corneal trauma with stone chips and metal splinters appeared to be the most common predisposing factors of fungal keratitis (30.76%) followed by ocular surgery and corneal disease (26.92%). Of 52 positive patients with corneal ulcer surveyed the most important causative agents of fungal keratitis were Aspergillus spp. (44.23%), followed by Candida spp. (17.30%) and Fusarium spp. (17.30%). Because of serious consequences of infectious keratitis, it is important to know the exact etiology of fungal keratitis to institute appropriate therapy in time. Laboratory confirmation should be before pre scribing corticosteroids and antifungal.
| Published in | Clinical Medicine Research (Volume 4, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18 |
| Page(s) | 214-220 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Fungal Keratitis, Corneal Ulcer, Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp. , Candida spp. , Predisposing Factors
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APA Style
Noha Fathy Ahmed Osman El-Tahtawi. (2015). Epidemiological Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis in Patients with Corneal Ulcer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Clinical Medicine Research, 4(6), 214-220. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18
ACS Style
Noha Fathy Ahmed Osman El-Tahtawi. Epidemiological Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis in Patients with Corneal Ulcer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Clin. Med. Res. 2015, 4(6), 214-220. doi: 10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18
AMA Style
Noha Fathy Ahmed Osman El-Tahtawi. Epidemiological Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis in Patients with Corneal Ulcer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Clin Med Res. 2015;4(6):214-220. doi: 10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18
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Download@article{10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18,
author = {Noha Fathy Ahmed Osman El-Tahtawi},
title = {Epidemiological Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis in Patients with Corneal Ulcer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia},
journal = {Clinical Medicine Research},
volume = {4},
number = {6},
pages = {214-220},
doi = {10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cmr.20150406.18},
abstract = {Corneal blindness is a major health problem worldwide and infectious keratitis is one of the predominant causes. The incidence of fungal keratitis has increased over the last few years. Keeping this in mind, this study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of positive fungal cultures in infectious keratitis and of the various fungal species identified as etiologic agents in patients with corneal ulcer attending the ophthalmic departments of 3 hospitals in Riyadh. Corneal scrapings from 100 patients of corneal ulcer with suspected fungal etiology were subjected to direct examination by 10% KOH and lacto-phenol cotton blue mount. Also swabs of diseased eyes were taken with sterilized swabs. The specimens were also inoculated directly on to Sabouraud’s dextrose agar in C-shaped streaks. From 100 patients of corneal ulcer investigated, only 52% of patients were positive. Males were more commonly affected than females (69.23% and 30.76%), respectively. The age of patients was ranged from 28-55 years. 18 (34.61%) patients with fungal keratitis were laborers, 15 (28.84%) teachers, 7 (13.46%) housewives, 6 (11.53%) shepherds and 6 (11.53%) were civil engineers. Corneal trauma with stone chips and metal splinters appeared to be the most common predisposing factors of fungal keratitis (30.76%) followed by ocular surgery and corneal disease (26.92%). Of 52 positive patients with corneal ulcer surveyed the most important causative agents of fungal keratitis were Aspergillus spp. (44.23%), followed by Candida spp. (17.30%) and Fusarium spp. (17.30%). Because of serious consequences of infectious keratitis, it is important to know the exact etiology of fungal keratitis to institute appropriate therapy in time. Laboratory confirmation should be before pre scribing corticosteroids and antifungal.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Epidemiological Characteristics and Laboratory Diagnosis of Fungal Keratitis in Patients with Corneal Ulcer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia AU - Noha Fathy Ahmed Osman El-Tahtawi Y1 - 2015/12/25 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18 DO - 10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18 T2 - Clinical Medicine Research JF - Clinical Medicine Research JO - Clinical Medicine Research SP - 214 EP - 220 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2326-9057 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cmr.20150406.18 AB - Corneal blindness is a major health problem worldwide and infectious keratitis is one of the predominant causes. The incidence of fungal keratitis has increased over the last few years. Keeping this in mind, this study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of positive fungal cultures in infectious keratitis and of the various fungal species identified as etiologic agents in patients with corneal ulcer attending the ophthalmic departments of 3 hospitals in Riyadh. Corneal scrapings from 100 patients of corneal ulcer with suspected fungal etiology were subjected to direct examination by 10% KOH and lacto-phenol cotton blue mount. Also swabs of diseased eyes were taken with sterilized swabs. The specimens were also inoculated directly on to Sabouraud’s dextrose agar in C-shaped streaks. From 100 patients of corneal ulcer investigated, only 52% of patients were positive. Males were more commonly affected than females (69.23% and 30.76%), respectively. The age of patients was ranged from 28-55 years. 18 (34.61%) patients with fungal keratitis were laborers, 15 (28.84%) teachers, 7 (13.46%) housewives, 6 (11.53%) shepherds and 6 (11.53%) were civil engineers. Corneal trauma with stone chips and metal splinters appeared to be the most common predisposing factors of fungal keratitis (30.76%) followed by ocular surgery and corneal disease (26.92%). Of 52 positive patients with corneal ulcer surveyed the most important causative agents of fungal keratitis were Aspergillus spp. (44.23%), followed by Candida spp. (17.30%) and Fusarium spp. (17.30%). Because of serious consequences of infectious keratitis, it is important to know the exact etiology of fungal keratitis to institute appropriate therapy in time. Laboratory confirmation should be before pre scribing corticosteroids and antifungal. VL - 4 IS - 6 ER -
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