Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How to detect bacteria and fungi in pets with eye ulcers?
By Bendlin, Ashley et al.·Published in Veterinary ophthalmology·2023·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Evaluation of a commercial NGS service for detection of bacterial and fungal pathogens in infectious ulcerative keratitis.
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with eye problems caused by infectious ulcerative keratitis (IUK) were tested to identify the bacteria and fungi responsible for their condition. Researchers compared a new DNA testing method (next-generation sequencing or NGS) with traditional culture tests. The NGS method was able to identify the infectious organisms in most cases, even in some where the culture tests came back negative. This suggests that NGS could be a helpful tool for veterinarians in diagnosing eye infections in dogs, potentially leading to better treatment options.
People also search for: dog eye infection treatment · infectious ulcerative keratitis in dogs · NGS for dog eye problems
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To compare results from a commercial next-generation sequencing (NGS) service to corneal cytology and culture for identification of causative organisms in veterinary patients presenting for infectious ulcerative keratitis (IUK). PROCEDURE: Swabs for corneal aerobic and fungal cultures and DNA swabs for NGS were submitted for canine and equine normal controls (n = 11 and n = 4, respectively) and IUK patients (n = 22 and n = 8, respectively) for which microbrush cytology specimens confirmed the presence of infectious organisms. The sensitivity of the NGS results was compared with bacterial and fungal culture results. Concordance between the NGS and culture results was determined. RESULTS: The NGS results were positive for bacterial and fungal organisms in 5 and 1 normal and 18 and 1 IUK cases, respectively. Bacterial and fungal cultures were positive for 7 and 2 normal and 20 and 5 IUK cases, respectively. Sensitivity of NGS was 82.14% (95% confidence interval (CI), 63.11% to 93.94%) and specificity was 76.47% (95% CI, 50.10% to 93.19%). Concordance (complete and partial) between identified bacterial and fungal organisms was found in 79% and 100% of cases, respectively. NGS identified organisms in 3 culture-negative IUK samples. CONCLUSION: A commercial NGS service may be useful in the identification of causative agents in IUK cases with a sensitivity greater than the sensitivity previously reported for aerobic culture. Further testing is needed to determine the clinical significance of additional organisms isolated by NGS from infected cases, as well as organisms isolated from normal corneas.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36943705/