Open Access

Diagnostic methods for the etiological assessment of infectious corneal pathology (Review)

  • Authors:
    • Mihail Zemba
    • Otilia-Maria Dumitrescu
    • Andreea-Elena Dimirache
    • Daniel Constantin Branisteanu
    • Florian Balta
    • Marian Burcea
    • Andreea Dana Moraru
    • Sinziana Gradinaru
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: December 13, 2021     https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.11060
  • Article Number: 137
  • Copyright: © Zemba et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Infectious keratitis is a leading cause of visual morbidity, including blindness, all across the globe, especially in developing countries. Prompt and adequate treatment is mandatory to maintain corneal integrity and to recover the best possible final visual acuity. Although in most of the cases practitioners chose to employ empirical broad‑spectrum antimicrobial medication that is usually effective, in some instances, they face the need to identify the causative agent to establish the appropriate therapy. An extensive search was conducted on published literature before December 2020 concerning the main laboratory investigations used to identify the microbial agents found in infectious keratitis, their indications, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as the results reported by other studies concerning different diagnostic tools. At present, the gold standard for diagnosis is still considered to be the isolation of microorganisms in cultures, along with the examination of smears, but other newer techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next‑generation sequencing (NGS), and in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) have gained popularity in the last decades. Currently, these newer methods have proved to be valuable adjuvants in making the diagnosis, but technological advances hold promise that, in the future, these methods will have increased performance and availability, and may become the new gold standard, replacing the classic cultures and smears.
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February-2022
Volume 23 Issue 2

Print ISSN: 1792-0981
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Spandidos Publications style
Zemba M, Dumitrescu O, Dimirache A, Branisteanu DC, Balta F, Burcea M, Moraru AD and Gradinaru S: Diagnostic methods for the etiological assessment of infectious corneal pathology (Review). Exp Ther Med 23: 137, 2022
APA
Zemba, M., Dumitrescu, O., Dimirache, A., Branisteanu, D.C., Balta, F., Burcea, M. ... Gradinaru, S. (2022). Diagnostic methods for the etiological assessment of infectious corneal pathology (Review). Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 23, 137. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.11060
MLA
Zemba, M., Dumitrescu, O., Dimirache, A., Branisteanu, D. C., Balta, F., Burcea, M., Moraru, A. D., Gradinaru, S."Diagnostic methods for the etiological assessment of infectious corneal pathology (Review)". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 23.2 (2022): 137.
Chicago
Zemba, M., Dumitrescu, O., Dimirache, A., Branisteanu, D. C., Balta, F., Burcea, M., Moraru, A. D., Gradinaru, S."Diagnostic methods for the etiological assessment of infectious corneal pathology (Review)". Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine 23, no. 2 (2022): 137. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2021.11060