ABSTRACT
In recent times increasing occurrence of dermatophytosis, especially among the school children in eastern India was evidenced along with increased tendency of keeping companion animals such as dogs and cats. This study was undertaken to detect the occurrence of dermatophytes with antifungal susceptibility among the companion animals. A total of 1501 healthy companion animals comprising 1209 dogs and 292 cats belonged to individual owners in and around Kolkata [West Bengal, India] were examined for the evidence of dermatophytosis during 2011-2013. The collected samples were subjected to direct examination by standard KOH mount technique. The samples were inoculated into both Sabouraud dextrose agar [SDA] with 0.05% chloramphenicol and 0.5% cycloheximide and dermatophyte test medium [DTM]. Each of the fungal isolate was identified based upon its colony characteristics and hyphal and conidial cells it produced. Antifungal susceptibility of the isolates was tested by broth micro dilution assay using fluconazole, ketoconazole, itraconazole, miconazole, griseofulvin and amphotericin-B antifungals. Among the 1209 samples from dogs and 292 samples from cats, 253 [20.93%] and 109 [37.33%] samples were positive for dermatophytes by direct examination. Three identified species of dermatophytes with predominant occurrence were Microsporum canis, Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Ketoconazole [0.06-0.5 microgm/ml], itraconazole [0.03-0.5 microgm/ml] and amphotericin-B [0.03-0.5 microgm/ml] showed lowest MIC values against M. canis, T. mentagrophytes and M. gypseum, respectively. This is the first systemic report of dermatophytes in healthy companion animals with large numbers of samples in India
ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to determine the normal intraocular pressure [IOP] reference ranges for both the Perkins applanation tonometer [APT], and the Schiotz tonomer [5.5g weight] is in 33 normal Saudi children aged up to 6 years under spontaneous respiration halothane anaesthesia. Allowing for both inter- and intra-observer variation, the recommended reference ranges for both sexes are 4.0 to 16.0 [mean 10.2] mmHg for APT measurements, and 3.0 to 22.0 [mean 12.5] mmHg for Schiotz measurements, with confidence limits of 99%