Treatment of two postoperative endophthalmitis cases due to Aspergillus flavus and Scopulariopsis spp. with local and systemic antifungal therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Endophthalmitis is the inflammatory response to invasion of the eye with bacteria or fungi. The incidence of endophthalmitis after cataract surgery varies between 0.072–0.13 percent. Treatment of endophthalmitis with fungal etiology is difficult.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p><b>Case 1: </b>A 71-year old male diabetic patient developed postoperative endophthalmitis due to <it>Aspergillus flavus</it>. The patient was treated with topical amphotericin B ophthalmic solution, intravenous (IV) liposomal amphotericin-B and caspofungin following vitrectomy.</p> <p><b>Case 2: </b>A 72-year old male cachectic patient developed postoperative endophthalmitis due to <it>Scopulariopsis </it>spp. The patient was treated with topical and IV voriconazole and caspofungin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>Aspergillus </it>spp. are responsible of postoperative fungal endophthalmitis. Endophthalmitis caused by <it>Scopulariopsis </it>spp. is a very rare condition. The two cases were successfully treated with local and systemic antifungal therapy.</p

Conformational disorder and energy migration in MEH-PPV with partially broken conjugation

In order to obtain a better understanding of the role of conformational disorder in the photophysics of conjugated polymers the ultrafast transient absorption anisotropy of partially deconjugated MEH-PPV has been measured. These data have been compared to the corresponding kinetics of Monte Carlo-simulated polymer chains, and estimates of the energy hopping time and energy migration distances for the polymers have been obtained. We find that the energy migration in the investigated MEH-PPV is approximately 3 times faster than in previously studied polythiophenes. We attribute this to a more disordered chain conformation in MEH-PPV. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics

Endogenous endophthalmitis: a 13-year review at a tertiary hospital in South Australia.

This retrospective report presents a series of patients with endogenous endophthalmitis treated over a 13-y period in a tertiary care centre in South Australia. 16 eyes of 13 patients (8 M, 5F) with a mean age 62 y were included. Systemic predisposing risk factors were mainly diabetes mellitus (30.7%), chronic obstructive airway disease (23.1%) and end-stage renal disease (15.4%). Isolated organisms included fungal species in 11 eyes (7 eyes with Candida albicans and 4 with Aspergillus fumigatus), Gram-positive isolates in 4 eyes, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 1 eye. Presenting visual acuity was 20/200 or lower in 8 patients (61.5%). Final visual improvement of more than 2 lines was noted in 5 patients, it was stable or worse in 6 patients and in 2 patients the eye was either enucleated or eviscerated. Systemic aspergillosis resulted in death of both patients. In conclusion, the clinical course and microbiological profile of pathogens in patients with endogenous endophthalmitis in our series are similar to other recent western reports. Candida species are the leading isolates, with an overall poor visual prognosis, especially in Aspergillus infections. Close monitoring of immune-compromized patients with systemic infections may enable early diagnosis and treatment and improve prognosis.Igal Leibovitch, Tze Lai, Grant Raymond, Ramin Zadeh, Francis Nathan and Dinesh Selv