British Journal of Ophthalmology Letters

Comment on: The role of the optical coherence tomography in identifying shape and size of idiopathic epiretinal membranes

Ayata, A., Yildirim, Y. — 2012-05-15T13:21:39-07:00

We read with great interest the paper by Hajnajeeb et al1 about the role of optical coherence tomography in identifying the shape and size of idiopathic epiretinal membranes (ERM). We have some concerns and comments about the study.

Although the authors stated the investigators were blinded to image analyses, it is not possible for several reasons. First, the colour-coded retinal thickness map (RTM) image has several different colours representing different thickness levels, but the intraoperative image has only two; stained and unstained. Second, the RTM images may have some island regarding the thickness level as seen in figure 1, but the intraoperative pictures have diffuse content. Third, colour-coded RTM images are interpolated from the measured retinal thickness from the 128 B scan (each containing 512 A scans) optic coherence tomography (OCT) images. Therefore, these interpolation leads soften the interval zones. According to the reasons stated above, someone...

Authors' response

2012-05-15T13:21:39-07:00

We would like to thank Dr Ayata and colleagues1 for their interest in our work2 and their comments and concerns regarding our publication.

Throughout our manuscript, we did not mention that our study was blinded. In contrast, we clearly referred in both the methods and the discussion sections that our work was not blinded giving the explanation for that decision (eg, Discussion: ‘...and the non-blinded form of our study have to be considered.’).

We fully agree with Dr Ayata and colleagues regarding the inappropriate usage of μm² instead of mm² unit and thank them for the notification.

We agree with Dr Ayata and colleagues that retinal thickness map is not a real image and some software in the modern optical coherence tomography equipment possibly gives better assessment of the size and shape of the epiretinal membrane (ERM). On the other hand, as we...

Evaluation of three PCR assays for the detection of fungi in patients with mycotic keratitis

Balne, P. K., Reddy, A. K., Kodiganti, M., Gorli, S. R., Garg, P. — 2012-05-15T13:21:39-07:00

Mycotic keratitis is a leading cause of ocular morbidity throughout the world and a higher incidence of fungal keratitis has been reported from tropical and subtropical countries. Early diagnosis is important for the prompt management of this disorder. Among the various diagnostic tests available, culture is considered the gold standard. The other commonly used techniques include direct microscopic examination methods like potassium hydroxide with or without calcofluor white wet mount, Grams stain, acridine orange and Giemsa stain.1 In the face of a negative culture, microscopy is relied upon for initiation of antifungal therapy.2 While the culture of fungus from clinical samples requires 2 days to 2 weeks, the positive culture rate may be influenced by prior antifungal therapy and the number of organisms present in the clinical samples.3

The PCR assays targeting several regions on fungal ribosomal DNA have been evaluated separately for the detection...