Agreement between cotton tipped applicator and knife blade on isolated microbes after direct plating in patients with infectious keratitis
| No. of isolates obtained by both instruments (n=99) | No. of isolates obtained by cotton tipped applicator only (n=81) | No. of isolates obtained by knife blade only (n=18) | Negative by both instruments | Cohen’s kappa (95% CI) | |
| Staphylococcus aureus | 18 | 15 | 3 | 319 | 0.64 (0.49 to 0.79) |
| Staphylococcus lugdunensis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 354 | 1 (1 to 1) |
| Coagulase-negative staphylococci | 11 | 30 | 9 | 305 | 0.31 (0.15 to 0.47) |
| Streptococcus pneumoniae | 7 | 0 | 0 | 348 | 1 (1 to 1) |
| Beta-hemolytic streptococci | 2 | 1 | 0 | 352 | 0.8 (0.41 to 1) |
| Alpha-hemolytic streptococci | 7 | 6 | 1 | 341 | 0.66 (0.42 to 0.89) |
| Corynebacterium macginleyi | 8 | 3 | 0 | 344 | 0.84 (0.66 to 1) |
| Corynebacterium spp. | 8 | 11 | 1 | 335 | 0.56 (0.33 to 0.78) |
| Micrococcus spp. | 1 | 0 | 1 | 353 | 0.67 (0.05 to 1) |
| Haemophilus influenzae | 3 | 1 | 0 | 351 | 0.86 (0.58 to 1) |
| Enterobacteriaceae | 2 | 3 | 0 | 350 | 0.57 (0.13 to 1) |
| Pseudomonas aeruginosa | 11 | 3 | 0 | 341 | 0.88 (0.74 to 1) |
| Stenotrophomonas maltophilia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 354 | 0 (0 to 0) |
| Pseudomonas spp. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 354 | 1 (1 to 1) |
| Neisseria meningitidis | 3 | 0 | 0 | 352 | 1 (1 to 19 |
| Moraxella catarrhalis | 2 | 1 | 0 | 352 | 0.8 (0.41 to 1) |
| Moraxella spp. | 12 | 5 | 0 | 338 | 0.82 (0.67 to 0.97) |
| *Miscellaneous Gram-negative | 0 | 1 | 1 | 353 | x |
| Candida albicans | 1 | 0 | 0 | 354 | 1 (1 to 1) |
| Fusarium spp. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 354 | 1 (1 to 1) |
| Mould unspecified | 0 | 0 | 2 | 353 | 0 (0 to 0) |
| Total | 99 | 81 | 18 | 7257 | 0.66 (0.60 to 0.72) |
*Miscellaneous Gram-negative: Pasteurella multiocida, Aggregatibacter segnis.