FUNGAL ENDOPHTHALMITIS - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY WITH A REVIEW OF 17 HUMAN OCULAR CASES

Pseudallescheria boydii is an opportunistic fungus that is histologically indistinguishable from Aspergillus fumigatus. Pseudallescheria boydii has been reported to cause endopthalmitis, orbital cellulitis, and corneal ulceration and is, thus, important to the opthalmologist. A clinical review of 17 patients with P boydii opthalmic infections is presented. In addition, animal models of endopthalmitides caused by A fumigatus and P boydii were created and compared. Dutch-Belted rabbits used for the experimental models were immunosuppressed with methylprednisolone acetate (Depomedrol). Exogenous and endogenous models of P boydii endophthalmitis were created in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed animals. An exogenous model of A fumigatus endophthalmitis was created in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed animals for comparison. The clinical and histopathologic features of A fumigatus and P boydii endophthalmitis are indistinguishable in the immunocompetent and immunosuppressed exogenously infected rabbits. Endogenous P boydii endophthalmitis has a similar fundus appearance to that caused by Nocardia asteroides.