Diagnosing Fungal Keratitis and Simultaneously Identifying <i>Fusarium</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> Keratitis with a Dot Hybridization Array

oleh: Ming-Tse Kuo, Shiuh-Liang Hsu, Huey-Ling You, Shu-Fang Kuo, Po-Chiung Fang, Hun-Ju Yu, Alexander Chen, Chia-Yi Tseng, Yu-Hsuan Lai, Jiunn-Liang Chen

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-01-01

Deskripsi

Fungal keratitis (FK) is one of the most common microbial keratitis, which often leads to poor prognosis as a result of delayed diagnosis. Several studies implied that early differentiation of the two major FK, <i>Fusarium</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> keratitis, could be helpful in selecting effective anti-fungal regimens. Therefore, a novel dot hybridization array (DHA) was developed to diagnose FK and differentiate <i>Fusarium</i> and <i>Aspergillus</i> keratitis in this study. One hundred forty-six corneal scrapes obtained from one hundred forty-six subjects impressed with clinically suspected FK were used to evaluate the performance of the DHA. Among these patients, 107 (73.3%) patients had actual FK confirmed by culture and DNA sequencing. We found that the DHA had 93.5% sensitivity and 97.4% specificity in diagnosing FK. In addition, this array had 93.2% sensitivity and 93.8% specificity in diagnosing <i>Fusarium</i> keratitis, as well as 83.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity in diagnosing <i>Aspergillus</i> keratitis. Furthermore, it had 83.9% sensitivity and 100% specificity in identifying <i>Fusarium solani</i> keratitis. Thus, this newly developed DHA will be beneficial to earlier diagnosis, more precise treatment, and improve prognosis of FK, by minimizing medical refractory events and surgical needs.