Equine infectious keratitis in Finland : Associated microbial isolates and susceptibility profiles

Objective To retrospectively describe laboratory findings, treatment, and outcome associated with equine infectious keratitis in Finland. Animals and procedures Medical records of horses diagnosed with infectious keratitis in University of Helsinki Equine Hospital from January 2007 to June 2018 were reviewed. Results Forty-seven cases were included. Keratomycosis was diagnosed in 27 eyes and bacterial keratitis in 20 eyes. Aspergillus flavus was the most frequent fungal isolate (9/17, 53%), followed by Cylindrocarpon sp. (3/17, 18%) and Aspergillus fumigatus (2/17, 12%). Susceptibility was tested for 10/11 Aspergillus sp. isolates; all were susceptible to voriconazole while only two were susceptible to amphotericin B. Cylindrocarpon sp. isolates were resistant to both agents. Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus was the most frequent bacterial isolate (9/19, 47%), followed by other streptococci (4/19, 21%). All 13 Streptococcus sp. isolates were susceptible to penicillin, and all tested isolates (n = 11) were also susceptible to chloramphenicol. Mean duration of medical treatment was longer in fungal keratitis (38 days) than in bacterial keratitis (25 days) (P <.001). Twenty-six of the eyes underwent globe-sparing surgery in addition to medical therapy. Recovery was achieved in 66% (31/47) of all cases and in 59% (16/27) and 75% (15/20) (P = .264) of cases with keratomycosis and bacterial keratitis, respectively. Conclusions Although Aspergillus sp. and S zooepidemicus were the most frequently encountered isolates, cytology, culture, and susceptibility testing are essential to differentiate bacterial and fungal keratitis and guide the clinician to choose the most efficient treatment.Peer reviewe

Improved analysis of solar signals for differential reflectivity monitoring

This dataset contains the underlying data that are used in the figures of the article 'Improved analysis of solar signals for differential reflectivity monitoring' published in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) operates a network of 10 C-band Doppler weather radars, of which nine radars are polarimetric. Every 15 min the radars perform a 30 12-elevation volume scan between 0.3 and 45◦ elevations, where 6 elevations up to 9◦ are scanned in single–PRF with 570 Hz, and then 6 elevations starting from 2 up to 45◦ in dual–PRF. Every 5 min the first 6 of these 12 elevations are repeated. The dataset contain analyses of so-called 'sunhits' that are detected in the polar volume data produced by the Finnish radars. Datasets are ascii text files where each line represents a datapoint, the content is described in separate 'Readme' files. The data files are best understood when they are read alongside the accompanying article by Huuskonen, Kurri, and Holleman entitled "Improved analysis of solar signals for differential reflectivity monitoring" in Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 3183-3192, 2016 (doi:10.5194/amt-9-3183-2016)