MELBOURNE, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Contact lens culture may help identify the causative organism in many cases of contact lens-related microbial keratitis, Australian researchers found.

Sujata Das of the Center for Eye Research Australia, and colleagues at the University of Melbourne and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, in Melbourne, reviewed the records of 49 patients with contact lens-related microbial keratitis from January 2001 to December 2004.

The researchers looked at the association between cultures of contact lenses and cultures of corneal scrapings as well as age, sex, symptoms, results and predisposing factors.

Among the 49 patients, there were 50 eyes with microbial keratitis. Seventeen corneal scrapings and 35 contact lenses were found to have organisms growing on them, reported the study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

In 13 eyes, identical organisms were growing in the cultures taken from the corneal scrapings and from the contact lenses.

Contact lens culture may give a clue regarding the identity of the causative organism in situations in which the corneal scraping is culture negative. However, the cultures found on contact lenses cannot replace those found in corneal scrapings, Das said.