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. 2009 Jun;28(5):516-9.
doi: 10.1097/ICO.0b013e318193e0fe.

Twenty years of acanthamoeba keratitis

F R S Carvalho  1 , A S Foronda, M J Mannis, A L Höfling-Lima, R Belfort Jr, Denise de Freitas
Affiliations

Twenty years of acanthamoeba keratitis

F R S Carvalho et al. Cornea. 2009 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: We described the rate of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) in a referral eye center in São Paulo, Brazil, through a retrospective review of clinical and laboratorial records of patients over 2 decades.

Methods: From 1987 to 2006, a total of 581 requests for amoebic laboratory workup in cases of infectious keratitis were investigated. Statistical analyses were applied to analyze a tendency of AK cases.

Results: Acanthamoeba species were cultured from corneal scrapings of 185 patients, 5 of them with bilateral infection. Eighty-three percent of those patients were related with contact lens wear.

Conclusions: The results suggested that patients with AK have persisted and increased over time at our ophthalmology center. Contact lenses showed to be a potential risk factor. Amoebic corneal infection can be considered as a new but well-established disease in Brazilian ophthalmology and visual sciences.

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