Propective Comparion of Microbial Culture and Polymerae Chain Reaction in the Diagnoi of Corneal Ulcer Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To compare polymerae chain reaction (PCR) to microbial culture for the detection and identification of bacterial and fungal pathogen in microbial keratiti. Deign Propective cohort tudy. Method A total of 108 conecutive corneal ulcer were cultured and analyzed by PCR uing pan-bacterial and pan-fungal primer. PCR product were cloned, equenced, and compared to culture reult uing tandard bioinformatic tool. Reult Of the 108 ample, 56 were culture-poitive, 25 for bacteria and 31 for fungi; 52 were culture-negative. After eliminating fale-poitive PCR product, 94 of 108 were poitive by PCR, 37 for bacteria and 57 for fungi. Nineteen of 25 bacterial culture-poitive ample were poitive by PCR, and 29 of 31 ample culture-poitive for fungi were poitive by PCR. The majority of equenced PCR product matched the poitive culture reult. Of the 52 culture-negative ample, 46 (88%) yielded pathogen deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) PCR product, 18 bacterial and 28 fungal. Thee repreented a variety of pecie, including at leat three novel previouly uncultured microbe. Concluion PCR detect microbial DNA in the majority of bacterial and fungal corneal ulcer, and identifie potentially pathogenic organim in a high proportion of culture-negative cae. Yield and concordance with culture are higher for fungal than bacterial ulcer. Practical ue of the technique i limited by artefactual amplification of nonpathogenic organim. PCR may be ued a an adjunct to culture to identify potential pathogen in microbial keratiti.