**Author details**

Virginia Vanzzini Zago\* and Ana Lilia Perez-Balbuena \*Address all correspondence to: vivanzzini@yahoo.com

Laboratory of Microbiology, Hospital Asociación Para Evitar la Ceguera en México "Dr Luis Sánchez Bulnes", México City, Mexico

#### **References**

**13. Conclusion**

82 Common Eye Infections

ical topical treatment.

**Acknowledgments**

**Author details**

Virginia Vanzzini Zago\*

Sánchez Bulnes", México City, Mexico

ard to achieve the best prognosis.

Bacterial or fungal corneal inflammation or ulcerations are threatening condition for visual function; the early and accurate diagnosis and specific medical treatment are the gold stand‐

Keratitis caused by Gram negative bacteria and a fungal keratitis clinically seems very similar by clinical signs, the support that the laboratory of microbiology can give for the differentiation be‐ tween two entities are very important because the medical treatment are made with different drugs, in the other hand keratitis caused by Gram positive bacteria and yeast like fungus, are very similar in inflammatory signs, and in this cases one smear can make the differentiation.

In *Neisseria gonohorroae* keratitis, one delayed or not laboratory confirmation diagnosis is of high risk because the corneal tissue loss is always important and there is risk to lose the whole cornea. Other options for detection of yeast or filamentous fungi in corneal samples are PCR techni‐ ques as suggest Baine using 18S rRNA: 28S rRNA or ITS PCR [27] when the patient has been previously antifungal treated and the corneal smears and cultures are negative for fungal cells search, he suggest PCR as complementary test for traditional cultures as mentioned above. Goldschmidt et al. using High-resolution melting technique [28], detected and differentiated yeast like and filamentous fungi in keratomycose samples in 46 patient in a more simple, spe‐ cific and cost-efficient test. In 10 negative culture samples they detected 7 cases positive for fungal infections. We have no experience in mycotic keratitis detected by PCR or PCR derived

techniques, never the less in one culture proved *Histoplasma capsulatum* scleritis [29].

visual acuity in a patient suffering for a corneal infection.

To Miss Elia Portugal for its invaluable help in editorial work.

\*Address all correspondence to: vivanzzini@yahoo.com

and Ana Lilia Perez-Balbuena

Laboratory of Microbiology, Hospital Asociación Para Evitar la Ceguera en México "Dr Luis

It is very important for the best prognosis in keratitis cases, to confirm the clinical diagnosis by the laboratory work since the first consultation, for to start immediately the specific med‐

For all those reasons the laboratory support in the clinical diagnosis of keratitis is very im‐ portant in order to achieve a shorter evolution time and to achieve a small scar for the better


year review. Ophthalmology.2012: May 23.[Epub ahead of print] ISSN 0161-6420/12/ Shttp//dx.doi.org/10.106/j.ophtha.2012.03.031.

