Women loses vision due to rare Acanthamoeba Keratitis

Dr Lanxing Fu, at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester, United Kingdom and colleagues have reported a rare case of Acanthamoeba Keratitis. The case has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Acanthamoeba is naturally occurring amoeba (tiny, one-celled animals) commonly found in water sources, such as tap water, well water, swimming pools, hot tubs, and soil and sewage systems. If these tiny parasites infect the eye, Acanthamoeba keratitis results. Contact lens wearers face a risk of contracting this infection if they engage in certain practices, such as disinfecting lenses with tap water or swimming or showering while wearing lenses.

A 41-year-old woman presented to the ophthalmology clinic with a 2-month history of intermittent pain, blurry vision, and sensitivity to light in her left eye. She wore monthly disposable soft contact lenses that she kept in her eyes while swimming and showering. The patient had difficulty keeping her left eye open during the physical examination, which revealed redness of the conjunctiva.

The visual acuity was 20/20 in the right eye and 20/200 in the left eye. A large, ring-shaped infiltrate was present in the left eye, along with corneal haze and an overlying epithelial defect, which showed uptake of fluorescein dye. Cultures from corneal scrapings grew Acanthamoeba polyphagia. She received a diagnosis of acanthamoeba keratitis, a vision-threatening infection most commonly associated with contact lens wear.

Samples from her eye tested positive for Acanthamoeba keratitis, a rare parasitic infection of the cornea. The infection is known to damage a person's vision and is tied to the use of contact lenses, according to the report, led by Dr Lanxing Fu, of the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in the United Kingdom.

The patient was treated with topical polihexanide and propamidine isethionate. Although the infection resolved, the vision in her left eye was not restored, owing to a dense, central corneal scar and cataract. Twelve months after the initial presentation, the patient underwent deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty, which resulted in a postoperative visual acuity of 20/80 and no discomfort in her left eye.