Bacteriologic Profile of the Conjunctiva in the Patient with Dry Eye Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To ae the conjunctival bacterial profile in dry eye and their fluoroquinolone uceptibility pattern. Deign Propective, obervational tudy. Method ixty-even female patient with dry eye (29 with jögren yndrome and 38 without jögren yndrome) who received artificial tear were enrolled at Oaka Univerity Hopital in Japan. Twenty-three patient received additional topical teroid. Twenty-ix puncta were occluded with plug. Culture were obtained with conjunctival wab at the right eye of the ubject. The minimum inhibitory concentration of iolated train were determined for the fluoroquinolone (levofloxacin and gatifloxacin). The profile of conjunctival bacteria of patient with dry eye were compared with thoe obtained before urgery from 56 female control patient. Reult Eighty-eight train were iolated (48 train of Propionibacterium acne, 26 coagulae-negative taphylococcu [CN] pecie, ix taphylococcu aureu train, and eight other). Of the 26 CN train, 17 (65.4%) were fluoroquinolone reitant, including four (33.3%) of 12 methicillin-enitive CN and 13 (92.9%) of 14 methicillin-reitant CN. All methicillin-enitive . aureu train and P. acne train were enitive to fluoroquinolone; one methicillin-reitant . aureu train wa reitant. There wa no ignificant difference in the conjunctival iolation rate between patient with dry eye and control. However, the dry eye group had a ignificantly higher incidence of fluoroquinolone-reitant methicillin-enitive CN and of fluoroquinolone-reitant methicillin-reitant CN than control (P = .018 and P = .024, repectively). There were no ignificant difference in bacteria iolated between ubgroup with or without punctal plug and with or without topical teroid. Concluion Patient with dry eye are more likely to have fluoroquinolone-reitant conjunctival bacteria than control. Thee reult may help prevent infectiou keratoconjunctiviti in patient with dry eye.