Swabs & Eye Infections?

[Jenn1]

Anyone had their eyes swabbed for infections and what was the result and treatment?

[Colin P]

Yep; Me!.. Cost £199 (private) Opth asked me to gently pull down on lower eyelids look up, and he swabbed(with a little pressure applied) a small piece accross bottom of my eye-the part which is usualy concealed behind lower eyelid. The swab itself is an oversized cotton stick we call them over here, a stick with a hard, small cotton bud on each end. Swab was then sent away for tests, results came back 7 days later...
The test was for, i think it was called Chlamidia trachnosis, or something that sounds like that?......

Result in my case was............................................... .............





























































..............Negative.......

[Jenn1]

I am going to ask for one myself to check for a number of infections, esp hospital ones as i had an op a while ago. Not expecting anything significant, but worth a try. Did the lab check for other infections in your case Colin? I'm in the UK too.

[Colin P]

Hiya Jen.
Firstly i will give you simple answer for above question. After reading Wikepedia's page on it, fasten your seatbelts and read/listen to this one!!.

(A) ive just checked the result sheet i got back Jen, and it only mentions Chalmidia tracnosis or however you spell it??.. NEGATIVE!!..
But surely it wil check for other things. The best person to speak to is your opthamolagist who will know what else the 'test' tests for?..
.................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................

Right then! it wont do any harm to inject a bit of humour on here, even if it is at my expense..
It is forever cropping up on the forum, mis-diagnosis/opth dont belive me etc-etc.. How about this tale of woe from the guy i saw first, when i started out with dry-eye symptoms.
My head was well and truly wedged up my ass (not why i went to see opth! it's just a figure of speech for mentaly in a mess). And i need (was paying also) some answers.
He was Irish and i could not understand a word he spoke, and felt awful asking him to repeat himself. Then he told me theres nothing wrong, and to stop doing everything i was doing for my eyes,incl eye drops. Followed by, "here if youre going to use drops, we use these, minims (minimul use!!), they are closest thing to water", ive sinse read on internet that minims are for severe dry eye.... They only cost me £15 for a box of 28 vials.... Then he told me "i'm the wrong age and wrong sex to have dryeye"!.
Then this one for good measure! "do you put anything else in your eyes?" reply- "like what? why would i put anything in my eyes!" (this was one of the rare occasions he let me speak, and i could understand him) "It's just that i have a female patient who was involved in a bizzare sex game" i thought he meant drugs?? and putting them in your eyes for some reason? she saw him because she did not want to tell gp... From reading the wikipedia link i now understand what he was talking about.
Needless to say ive still not paid him the £160 for this visit.. Just what i needed when i was going out of my mind with worry...

The N.H.S could not spot any problem so passed me off as Blepharitis and gave me a leaflet to read....NEXT!!!... what made him think i had bleph? i do not know??!.
2nd visit to an N.H.S opth (3 months later) "here have some doxycycline" oh! and she was looking in the wrong eye! the above had put in my records 'Left eye'...
I told her this was wrong. 3rd visit with N.H.S and they checked my Left eye again, before discharging me..
Back to my private opth... I told a 'freind' at work i was having a chlamidia test (that wont be spelt right) he said "thats an S.T.D" and burst out laughing.. I replied "i know!" and got on the phone to my wife and asked her "has she been 'fooling around'?" she was not happy, and asked me the same question? (weve been married 12 yrs) typical woman would not give me a straight answer for my repeated question "HAVE YOU OR NOT!! I'M BEING TESTED FOR AN STD" "cant belive your asking me this etc-etc" and "it can lie dormant for 10 years in women you know" as if my head was not already mixed up enough.... Followed by a phone call/rant to opth asking "why am i being tested for an S.T.D?" one explanaion later, i phoned my wife back....Gulp!..
Not long later my G.P refused me anti-depressents as i was 'over reacting'!..
Is it any wonder i ended up on a psychiatric ward for 6 weeks after all this ??!!... Im allright now............................................... .......................Honest!.

Sorry for hijacking your topic Jen-lol..
ps, if anyone else can beat that little lot for total incompitence? please pm me/start another topic...........

[Jenn1]

Lol. Sounds like you have had a rollercoaster with these opths like most of us. I do agree that when we are all first diagnosed that we may be in a state of denial, however, in my case and with I am sure others too, I have had surgery, accutane and eye issues occur almost together in a short space of time. I like to be thorough and was also given thyroid tests and antibodies as i had other symptoms too and they came back negative, but the swabs are next.

Totally agree with the bleph issue. The first opth did only see my dry eye ointment as i put a lot in due to burning eyes and then the second at least put in yellow drops to test my tear break up, but then just quickly pulled each lid down and diagnosed MGD I wasnt even told if my mei glands were completely blocked, partially or bit of both and like you was told to stop ALL meds and just use hot compresses. I thought the guy was mad as i cant use compresses when my eyes are burning or stinging!!

I am completing the fucithalmic course for a few weeks and doxy for 3 months, then i will see this second opth again and explain to him what i need, including any meds. Its like we have to battle both the dry eyes and opthamologists at the same time. I was told i will likely have this condition for life, but I mean by the time we get to the appointment date, the red raw, burning itching eyes usually calm down with meds and flare up at night........, no wonder they think we are making a fuss over nothing. I did mention though that i'd happily bring in pics or screaming in pain if he really wanted.

Oh and forgot to mention my bad habit of staying on the comp for more than 8 hours a day, which didnt help my eyes either.

[littlemermaid]

Inside lower eyelid:
MVPE Adenovirus and herpes by PCR
UPCR Chlamydia trachomatis DNA by PCR
MV1 Adenovirus by PCR
UPCU swab
MV2 Herpes I/II by PCR
MV3

MH Conjunctiva swab, EYCU culture

More interestingly:
Eyelash extraction for demodex
Meibomian gland expression + skin scrape for Malassezia

Results '...negative with no growth. This is often the case as flare-ups in blepharitis are usually the result of inflammation rather than infection.' LM's eyelid margins were not infected at the time, acne rosacea was 'quiet' due to topical antibacterials and anti-fungal shampoos, no seb derm skin flaking or Tinea versicolor she occasionally gets in overgrowth.

ColinP LOL. So true. Swab is the first thing they do for red eye at the STI clinic.

Still the case that infections are missed by ophth if they can't see them, also that docs don't give enough info about suspicions or swab site on path lab requests which contributes to dodgy results. Eg we had virus misdiagnosis on epithelial lesions for one year with no test.

[Colin P]

Yeah, i know-lol... I can laugh about it now, thought i'd give you lot a giggle also..

[spmcc]

Anyone had their eyes swabbed for infections and what was the result and treatment?

I had my eyes swabbed twice when I had an active infection. Both tests came back negative/normal. I finally insisted on having my intracanalicular plugs flushed (the infection started the day I got them - you could "milk" my puncta!). I was given vigamox (an antibiotic drop) and it all cleared up and has never come back.

Therefore, I don't put a lot of faith in swabs. Maybe doctors don't either. And that's why they often use a "treat to diagnose" or "response to therapy" approach. In other words, they give a medicine and if it works, then they have their diagnosis. If the treatment doesn't work, they prescribe a different one. And so on.

This can seem un-scientific and willy nilly, but I don't really think it's the worst thing to do. The "response to treatment" approach is used to diagnose such conditions as asthma and migraines.