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Virulent T4 Acanthamoeba causing keratitis in a patient after swimming while wearing contact lenses in Southern Brazil

  • Laura Fuhrich Fabres , Vinicius José Maschio , Denise Leal dos Santos , Sergio Kwitko , Diane Ruschel Marinho , Bruno Schneider de Araújo , Claudete Inês Locatelli and Marilise Brittes Rott EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 13, 2018
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Acta Parasitologica
From the journal Acta Parasitologica Volume 63 Issue 2

Abstract

Several strains of free-living amoebae belonging to the genus Acanthamoeba can cause a painful sight-threatening disease of the cornea known as Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK). The numbers of AK cases keep rising worldwide mainly due to an increase in contact lens wearers and lack of hygiene in the maintenance of contact lenses and their cases. We report a case of AK in a healthy young woman admitted to the Hospital de Clinicas in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. Corneal scrapings were examined for the presence of Acanthamoeba strains. The initial isolate was characterized by morphological and genotypic properties. The isolate belonged to group III according to Pussard and Pons’ cyst morphology. Analysis of its 18S rDNA sequence identified the isolate as genotype T4. The T4 genotype is the most commonly reported among keratitis isolates and the most common in environmental samples.

Keywords: Free-living amoebae; Acanthamoeba; keratitis; contact lenses

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the financial support, the Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa e Eventos (FIPE/HCPA), and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

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Received: 2017-8-23
Revised: 2017-12-18
Accepted: 2018-1-9
Published Online: 2018-4-13
Published in Print: 2018-6-26

© 2018 W. Stefański Institute of Parasitology, PAS

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ap-2018-0050
Keywords for this article
Free-living amoebae; Acanthamoeba; keratitis; contact lenses

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  10. A new species of Cacatuocotyle (Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) parasitizing Astyanax spp. (Characiformes, Characidae) from Brazil, including molecular data and a key to species identification
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