Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Case of the Week 233


A 67 year old contact lens wearer with eye pain was found to have a corneal ulcer. Corneal scrapings (unstained wet prep) revealed the following (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE).  The rounded structures measure approximately 15 micrometers in diameter.



Identification?
This case was generously donated by Dr. Julie Ribes.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Acanthamoeba spp. cysts

Anonymous said...

I concur Ananthamoeba...Lee

Anonymous said...

Looks like Acanthamoeba cysts based on the wavy outer wall (ectocyst).

Anonymous said...

Busted!!! Acanthameoba cyst...common among eye contact lens users.

Anonymous said...

Very nice case of Acanthamoeba sp. Just wonder what kind of prep the photograph is from? The microscopic morphology is very typical.

Florida fan

ParasiteGal said...

Dear Florida Fan,
It's just a wet prep of the corneal scrapings, which had been collected into a small amount of sterile saline. In addition to a microscopic examination, we also try to culture the specimen on tapwater agar overlain with E. coli.

Anonymous said...

Acanthameoba cysts- right size range, can see exocyst and endocyst walls.

Charo Sabariegos said...

Aló parasitologist,
In the images kindly you give us we can see cysts of Acanthamoeba spp "with a wrinkled or stellate outer cyst wall and smooth to slightly irregular inner cyst wall".
The cysts of Acanthamoeba spp. are typically 10-25 µm in diameter.

Anonymous said...

Acanthamoeba spp. Improper hygiene often leads to growth of this environmental organism.