A comparative study on two methods of ocular surface microbial sampling

BMC Ophthalmology

Research

Yanyan Chen¹  Peiyu Wu¹  Xinyi Shen¹  Jinzhi Huang¹  Weihe Zhou¹  Yi Xu¹ 

[1] National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, 325027, Wenzhou, China;

关键词: Cornea;    Infection surveillance and control;    Microbial aerosol;    Sampling method;    COVID-19;    Ocular surface microbial infection;    Conjunctival sac;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12886-023-02979-1

 received in 2022-10-19, accepted in 2023-05-17,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

PurposeTo compare the effect of traditional conjunctival sac swab sampling (A) with aerosolization ocular surface microorganism sampling (B),a novel microbial sampling method, in detecting ocular microbial infection.MethodsThe study included 61 participants (122 eyes) enrolled at the Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University from December, 2021 to March, 2023. Each eye of the participants underwent sampling first with method A then B.Before aerosolization sampling, the air environment was disinfected and sampled as blank air control sample. Subsequently, the air pulses impinging the ocular surface causes dehiscence of the tear film covering the ocular surface and aerosols are formed.The microorganisms from the ocular surface attach to the aerosols generated as aerosolization ocular surface microorganism and be sampled as subject sample by bio-aerosol sampler.The samples were collected and incubated at 25℃ for 3–5 days and 37℃ for 24–48 h.The colonies were counted and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.ResultsThe accuracy in Group B was higher than that in Group A (45.8% vs. 38.3%, P = 0.289). There was a slight level of agreement between the results from both the sampling methods (k = 0.031, P = 0.730). The sensitivity in Group B was higher than that in Group A (57.1% vs. 35.7%, P = 0.453). The specificity results in Group B was higher than that in Group A (44.3% vs. 38.7%, P = 0.480). There were 12 and 37 types of microbes detected in Groups A and B, respectively.ConclusionsCompared with traditional swab sampling, the novel aerosolization sampling method shows higher accuracy and more comprehensive detection of microbes; however, it cannot completely replace swab sampling. The novel method can be a novel conducive strategy and supplement swab sampling to auxiliary diagnose ocular surface infection.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

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