XXXX at a referral center in Brazil.

@entity1 @entity2194 @entity1036 @entity19415 @entity230 @entity130
To describe the epidemiological and laboratory characteristics of @entity1036 at a referral center in Brazil. Charts of all @entity1 referred to the Ocular Microbiology Laboratory at Federal University of S  o Paulo (UNIFESP) from July 1975 to September 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. The following data were recorded: age, gender, involved eye, use of ocular medication, previous @entity130 or surgery, contact lens wear and the results of laboratory cultures. The study included 6,804 corneal cultures. The mean age was 42.1      21.4  years. The male-to-female ratio was 1.5:1. Positive cultures were obtained in 3,309 (48.6%) cases. Of these, bacteria were isolated in 2,699 (39.7%), fungi in 364 (5.3%) and Acanthamoeba in 246 (3.6%) samples. Positive bacterial cultures were 2.7-fold more frequent in @entity1 with previous use of @entity230 (P  <  0.01), and a 30% reduction in positive bacterial cultures was observed in @entity1 with previous use of antibiotics (P  <  0.01). A total of 1,524 @entity1 (22.4%) had a past history of ocular surgery. Contact lens wearers showed a 1.7 times greater chance of having an Acanthamoeba-positive culture (P  <  0.01). Previous @entity2194 was present in 1,118 (16.4%) cases and injury caused by plants showed a 3.8 times greater chance of a positive fungal culture (P  <  0.01). Bacterial organisms were identified as the most frequent agent followed by fungi and Acanthamoeba. Prescription of @entity230 and antibiotics prior to corneal scrapings may modify the laboratory test results. Previous corneal surgery, contact lens wear and @entity2194 have been shown to be risk factors for @entity19415 , respectively.
