Diagnostic accuracy
What predicts bad outcomes in bacterial keratitis?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
In 283 UK eyes with suspected bacterial keratitis, almost all had a risk factor (OSD 47%, contact lenses 35%, immunosuppression 18%); age >50, infiltrate >3 mm, and poor presenting vision predicted worse vision and slow healing.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Whether resistant isolates represent disease or colonisation varies by site. Candiduria often reflects colonisation, so rising resistance in urine is not directly rising resistant disease, while culture-based series such as bacterial keratitis (only 45.2% culture-positive of 283 cases) draw organism-level conclusions from a minority of patients.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Whether resistant isolates represent disease or colonisation varies by site. Candiduria often reflects colonisation, so rising resistance in urine is not directly rising resistant disease, while culture-based series such as bacterial keratitis (only 45.2% culture-positive of 283 cases) draw organism-level conclusions from a minority of patients.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Retrospective consecutive suspected bacterial keratitis presenting to Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, 2015–2019 (Nottingham Infectious Keratitis Study).
- N
- N=283 · 283 patients / 283 eyes; mean age 54.4±21.0; 50.9% male; 45.2% culture-positive.
- Population
- Patients with suspected bacterial keratitis at a UK tertiary eye centre.
- Outcome
- Risk factors, culture results, hospitalisation/surgery, visual outcome (CDVA <0.6 logMAR), and delayed healing (>30 days).
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
What predicts bad outcomes in bacterial keratitis?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
283 eyes; mean age 54.4; 50.9% male.
A total of 283 patients ( n = 283 eyes) were included; mean age was 54.4 ± 21.0 years and 50.9% were male.
45.2% culture-positive.
Of 283 cases, 128 (45.2%) cases were culture-positive.
Key findings
128/283 (45.2%) culture-positive. Contact-lens cases linked to P. aeruginosa; non-CL cases to staphylococci (p=0.017). 57.2% hospitalized (mean 8.0 days); 16.3% needed surgery. Perforation 8.8%, NPL vision 3.9%, evisceration/enucleation 1.4%. Culture-positive eyes were older and more severe at presentation.
Methodology
Retrospective chart review of Queen’s Medical Centre BK suspects 2015–2019, comparing culture-positive vs negative presentations and modeling poor final CDVA (<0.6 logMAR) and delayed epithelial healing.
Limitations
Single-centre retrospective data cannot prove causality of risk factors or that earlier treatment would have changed every poor outcome; 55% culture-negative so organism effects are incomplete.
Related papers in this topic
Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.