investigations for microbial keratitis

Last reviewed 01/2018

  • investigating microbial keratitis
    • corneal scrapings for culture and antibiotic testing is usually employed for bacterial keratitis
    • corneal scrapings for Gram stain, Giemsa stain
    • KOH smear (potassium hydroxide wet mount) has a higher sensitivity than Gram stain, Giemsa stain and Kinyoun's acid-fast stain in diagnosis of infective keratitis caused by fungi, Nocardia and Acanthamoeba (1)
    • PCR

Reference:

  1. Bharathi MJ et al. Microbiological diagnosis of infective keratitis: comparative evaluation of direct microscopy and culture results. Bharathi MJ Br J Ophthalmol. 2006 Oct;90(10):1271-6.