Mycotic corneal ulcers in upper Assam

Abstract

Purpose:To study the association of various risk factors and epidemiological variables of mycotic keratitis treated at a tertiary referral hospital of upper Assam.Materials and Methods:In this hospital-based prospective study a total of 310 consecutive corneal ulcer cases attending the ophthalmology outpatient department of Assam Medical College were enrolled between April 2007 and March 2009. After clinical and slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination in all suspected cases, smears and culture examination for fungus was done to establish the etiology. Demographic information and associated probable risk factors of individual cases were noted in a predesigned questionnaire.Results:In 188 (60.6%) cases fungal etiology could be established. Out of them 67.6% were males. The most commonly affected age group was 41-50 years (25.5%). The maximum (23.4%) cases were reported during the paddy harvesting season in Assam (January and February). Fungal element could be demonstrated in 65.2% cases in direct potassium hydroxide (KOH) mount. The commonest predisposing factor was corneal injury (74.5%). While diabetes was a significant systemic predisposing factor in mixed bacterial and fungal infections in 11.1% cases, blocked naso-lacrimal duct was the local predisposing factor in 11.1% of cases. Fusarium solani (25%) was the commonest isolate followed by Aspergillus species (19%), Curvularia species (18.5%) and Penicillium species (15.2%). Yeasts were isolated in 2.7% (n=5) cases.Conclusions:Ocular trauma was the commonest cause of fungal corneal ulcer in Assam and Fusarium solani was the commonest species responsible for it. Most of the mycotic ulcer cases come from rural areas including the tea gardens.

Aerobic Bacteriological and Mycological Study of Ophthalmic Infections and Their Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern in a Tertiary Care Hospital at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh

“…the findings were closely corroborated with the study of Reema Nath et al which revealed 87.9% rural and 11.5% urban population involved in their study. (3) As represented in figure 2, it establishes that culture positivity was more with advancement of age as immunity tend to decrease with old age, thereby facilitating growth of pathogens yielding more culture positivity and the observations closely corroborated with the studies by Gulnaz Bashir et al, M Jayahar Bharathi et al and Khokar N. et al (1,4,5) The overall male:female ratio is 1.54:1. The observations revealed that in both bacteriological and fungal aetiologies of ocular infections, the males were more affected than females; the male preponderance may be due to more exposure to external environment in comparison to females.…”

Epidemiology of fungal keratitis in Queensland, Australia

“…The observation that younger male farmers are at higher risk for fungal keratitis has been made by a number of other authors in different countries. 11,13,[22][23][24][25][26] Significantly higher numbers of younger males were affected in the tropical and rural/regional areas of Queensland, where agriculture remains an important economic activity. While we did not collect data on occupation, younger males are more likely to be involved in agriculture, as well as other outdoor work.…”

Multidrug‐resistant Fusarium in keratitis: a clinico‐mycological study of keratitis infections in Chennai, India

“…13 In India, Fusarium species have been reported to be the most common causative agents of fungal keratitis. 3,14,15 There is an urgent need to expand our knowledge of these species in terms of epidemiology, methods of prevention and treatment.…”