AIM:To evaluate the epidemiological and etiological factors of microbial keratitis seen in tertiary hospitals in West and East Malaysia.METHODS:A total of 207 patients were enrolled.Patients referred for microbial keratitis to Sungai Buloh Hospital and Kuala Lumpur Hospital in West Malaysia and Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Kuching General Hospital in East Malaysia were recruited.Risk factors were documented.Corneal scrapings for microscopy and culture were performed.RESULTS:The most common risk factor in West Malaysia was organic trauma (28.5％) followed by non organic trauma (18.3％);27.7％ of trauma cases was work related with 34.2％ involving male foreign workers.The most common risk factor in East Malaysia was contact lens wear (32.9％).Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most common organism isolated in both places.The most common fungal pathogen in West Malaysia was Fusarium spp representing 60％ of all positive fungal cultures.CONCLUSION:In West Malaysia organic trauma was the most common risk factor seen in public hospitals here whereas,contact lens wear was the most common risk factor in East Malaysia (P＜ 0.05).Fungal keratitis was more commonly seen in West Malaysia.

Objectives: To develop a simple prediction model for the pre-screening of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) among preterm babies. Methods: This was a prospective study. The test dataset (January 2007 until December 2010) was used to construct risk prediction models, and the validation dataset (January 2011 until March 2012) was used to validate the models developed from the test dataset. Two prediction models were produced using the test dataset based on logistic regression equations in which the development of ROP was used as the outcome. Results: The sensitivity and specificity for model 1 [gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)] was 82 % and 81.7%, respectively; for model 2, (GA and BW) the sensitivity and specificity were 80.5% and 80.3%, respectively. Conclusion: Model 2 was preferable, as it only required two predictors (GA and BW). Our models can be used for the early prevention of ROP to avoid poor outcomes.