Protein and microbial determinations on worn contactudlenses cleaned conventionally using the Lens2®udautomatic lens cleaner

摘要

The accumulation of tear film proteins as well as microbes colonization ontoudworn contact lenses can be eliminated conventionally by mechanical rubbingudduring the cleaning process. Lens2®ud functions in rotation manner to loosenudthe deposits on the contact lens and has antimicrobial coating to keep lensesudaway from contamination. The objective of this study was to determine theudefficiency of Lens2®ud to remove deposited protein and reduce microbialudcontamination compared to conventional method. Twenty-eight subjects eachudwore a pair of contact lens FDA Group 1 (Polymacon, SoftLens®ud38, Bausch &udLomb) for one month and c l eaned them us ing mul t ipurpos e solut ionud(COMPLETEud®ud MoisturePLUSudTMud, Advanced Medical Optics) separately using twouddifferent methods. The right lens was cleaned conventionally while the left lensudwere cleaned using the Lens2®udThe control group of thirteen subjects each .udwore a pair of contact lens for the same period and cleaned both conventionally.udThese lenses and its cases were then analyzed for protein deposition usingudBichinchoninic Acid Assay (BCA) Kit (Sigma, USA) in 96-well plate. Microbialudcontamination was determined by culturing the samples on nutrient agar forudbacteria and fungi and non-nutrient agar for amoeba isolation. The mean ofudtotal protein on control lenses (17.014 ± 13.246 µg/mL) was not significantlyuddifferent from those on the Lens2®ud (21.623 ± 19.127 µg/mL). There were alsoudlow growth numbers of amoeba in each group of samples. Interestingly, thereudwere no growths of amoeba from all Lens2®ud samples collected. There was alsoudlow growth numbers of bacteria in each sample group whereby Lens2®ud had theudlowest growth of bacteria. No growth of fungi was obtained from all samples.udThe automatic lens cleaner, Lens2®ud was found to be as efficient as theudconventional cleaning method. However, the Lens2® udhas additional advantageudJurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia 6 (1) 2008: 11-2112udbecause of its antimicrobial material and need shorter time in the cleaningudprocess as well as easy and effective.