Comments on confocal microscopy of Aspergillus fumigatus keratitis
- 1Hong Kong Eye Hospital, 147K Argyle Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Correspondence to: Dorothy S Fan Hong Kong Eye Hospital, 147K Argyle Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong; dorothyfancuhk.edu.hk
- Accepted 20 November 2003
We read with great interest the article of Avunduk and coworkers,1 who conducted a study in using confocal microscopy to evaluate Aspergillus fumigatus keratitis in treated and untreated rabbit eyes. They concluded that “confocal microscopy is a rapid and sensitive diagnostic tool for both the early diagnosis and non-invasive follow up of fungal keratitis.” In order to justify the statement, two issues of concern on the early diagnosis have to be addressed.
The first is about the sensitivity in having positive diagnosis in the untreated eyes in the first experiment. On day 2, all 14 samples were smear and culture positive for Aspergillus fumigatus, therefore confocal microscopy could not demonstrate any superiority in early diagnosis in terms of sensitivity. On days 14 and 22 their conclusion that “confocal microscopy was more sensitive than culture technique” also could not be drawn unless the authors could enlighten us with supplementary data on the percentages of positive …
