The acantamoeba lesions of the cornea (diagnosis) (Review of literature)

Abstract

The Aсanthamoeba keratitis is a rare, but very dangerous disease of cornea; its development is connected with contact lens wearing, and corneal microtraumas with contamination of particles of the soil or water. The disease has no pronounced distinguishing clinical signs therefore it is difficult to distinguish them from herpetic or fungal keratitis. Nevertheless, it can be suspected on the basis of anamnestic data (use of contact lenses, corneal injury with contamination by the soil or water), uneven strong pain syndrome, ring-shaped infiltration of cornea, absence of effect of traditional therapy. Isolation of Acanthamoeba by bioculture method, morphological research of corneal bioptat (by light and luminescent microscopy), gene diagnostics, in – vivo confocal microscopy of the cornea can give additional help in the diagnosis. Also perspective diagnostic methods of Acanthamoeba keratitis are given. Nevertheless, so far there is no conventional technique of diagnosis of this disease.

Keywords

• acanthamoeba
• acanthamoeba keratitis
• contact lenses
• confocal microscopy
• polimerase chain reaction