Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer

Bacterial keratitis is an infection of the cornea. This kind of infection can progress quickly and if left untreated, it can eventually cause complete blindness. While Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are most commonly responsible for this type of infection in the United States, Noca...

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Main Authors: Shaymaa Hegazy, Tung Phan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-06-01
Series:Infectious Medicine
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772431X22000107
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author Shaymaa Hegazy
Tung Phan
author_facet Shaymaa Hegazy
Tung Phan
author_sort Shaymaa Hegazy
collection DOAJ
description Bacterial keratitis is an infection of the cornea. This kind of infection can progress quickly and if left untreated, it can eventually cause complete blindness. While Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are most commonly responsible for this type of infection in the United States, Nocardia spp. is rarely encountered. Here we describe an interesting case of Nocardia farcinica keratitis in a 31-year-old male patient having an extended wear of contact lenses. The patient presented at the emergency department with irritation, foreign body sensation, redness, and pain of his left eye. Nocardia farcinica was isolated from a corneal scraping specimen, and determined by sequencing a region of 16S rRNA gene. The patient had antimicrobial therapy with good improvement. We highlight the important role of Nocardia farcinica in causing keratitis, and its accurate and timely diagnosis is needed to avoid poor visual outcomes.
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spelling doaj.art-086ff6385bb547bda8b3c021651105a72024-01-26T05:35:55ZengElsevierInfectious Medicine2772-431X2022-06-0112143145Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearerShaymaa Hegazy0Tung Phan1Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USACorresponding author.; Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USABacterial keratitis is an infection of the cornea. This kind of infection can progress quickly and if left untreated, it can eventually cause complete blindness. While Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are most commonly responsible for this type of infection in the United States, Nocardia spp. is rarely encountered. Here we describe an interesting case of Nocardia farcinica keratitis in a 31-year-old male patient having an extended wear of contact lenses. The patient presented at the emergency department with irritation, foreign body sensation, redness, and pain of his left eye. Nocardia farcinica was isolated from a corneal scraping specimen, and determined by sequencing a region of 16S rRNA gene. The patient had antimicrobial therapy with good improvement. We highlight the important role of Nocardia farcinica in causing keratitis, and its accurate and timely diagnosis is needed to avoid poor visual outcomes.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772431X22000107KeratitisNocardia farcinicaContact lensesSequencing
spellingShingle Shaymaa Hegazy
Tung Phan
Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
Infectious Medicine
Keratitis
Nocardia farcinica
Contact lenses
Sequencing
title Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
title_full Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
title_fullStr Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
title_full_unstemmed Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
title_short Keratitis caused by Nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
title_sort keratitis caused by nocardia farcinica in a contact lens wearer
topic Keratitis
Nocardia farcinica
Contact lenses
Sequencing
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772431X22000107
work_keys_str_mv AT shaymaahegazy keratitiscausedbynocardiafarcinicainacontactlenswearer
AT tungphan keratitiscausedbynocardiafarcinicainacontactlenswearer