Quantitation of bacterial infection and antibiotic effect in the cornea
A. Kupferman and H. M. Leibowitz
We report an experimental model that allows objective quantitation of
bacterial keratitis. The model permits direct measurement of the number of
viable organisms in the cornea after varying periods of in vivo growth. The
size of the inoculum used to produce the corneal infection is critical, and
the experimental organism must be standardized for its growth
characteristics in the cornea. The end point is an objective one,
productive of numerical data that can be subjected to statistical analysis.
The findings are highly reproducible and the system is sufficiently
sensitive to indicate the ability of a topically administered antibiotic to
reduce the number of viable organisms in the cornea of an outbred rabbit
population.
