Figure 2.

Time of disease onset (A) and disease severity scores (B) of contact lens–induced P. aeruginosa keratitis in rats after a single inoculation with bacteria. Diseased eyes were scored (scaled 0–16)¹⁴ at 24 hours after observation of a faint corneal opacity. There was no significant difference in timing of disease onset (P = 0.240) or in disease severity (P = 0.427) (Kruskal-Wallis test) among low-dose (10⁵ cfu total adherent and planktonic bacteria) (n = 4 animals), high-dose (10⁹ cfu total adherent and planktonic bacteria) (n = 5 animals), and inadvertent inoculum (n = 3 animals) groups. Blotting of corneal epithelia before lens fitting had no effect on disease timing or severity (P = 1.000, P = 0.330, respectively; Mann-Whitney U test) (n = 4 animals in high-dose, blotted group). Transfer of lenses from previously diseased corneas trended toward shorter delays in disease onset compared with low- and inadvertent-inoculum groups (P = 0.074 and 0.048, respectively; Mann-Whitney U test) (n = 4 animals). *Outlier beyond 1.5 interquartile ranges above the third quartile.