title: Is blood agar an alternative to sabouraud dextrose agar for the isolation of fungi in patients with mycotic keratitis.
abstract: To compare the blood agar (BA), sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) and chocolate agar (CA) for the isolation of fungi in patients with mycotic keratitis. Corneal Scrapings of 229 patients with clinically diagnosed microbial keratitis were inoculated on BA, SDA, CA. The culture media were evaluated for the rate and time taken for the fungal growth. Seventy six of 229 patients had fungal keratitis. Fungus grew on BA in 60/76(78.9 %), on SDA in 76/76 (100 %), on CA in 40/76(52.6 %) patients. The fungi which grew on BA (60/76) also grown on SDA at the same time. The colony morphologies of different fungi were better on SDA than BA/CA. Among the different culture media, SDA is essential for the isolation fungi in patients with mycotic keratitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, GHR Micro Diagnostics, Dwarakapuri Colony, Punjagutta, Hyderabad, India. ashokreddyg999@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Ashok Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Upputuri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Brahmaiah
authors.forename: Nitesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Narayen
authors.forename: Ravi Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Rupak Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Meghraj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chitta
authors.forename: Srinivas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: Rishi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swarup
authors.forename: Syed Maaz
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mohiuddin
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Murali K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Aasuri
authors.forename: B S R
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Murthy
authors.forename: Milind
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhide
authors.forename: Sajid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D001769:Blood; D002099:Cacao; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry / Q000592:standards*; D015821:Eye Infections, Fungal / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005658:Fungi / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005947:Glucose; D006801:Humans; D007634:Keratitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D000362:Agar; D005947:Glucose