Applicability of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in rapid identification of some Candida and dermatophyte species infections in humans

Abstract

Traditional systems of identifying yeasts and dermatophytes have many disadvantages. Preliminary data on a radically different approach based on optical spectroscopic techniques suggest that these techniques may offer some advantages. We conducted a trial to verify the practical applicability of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in the identification of some yeast and dermatophyte species, in which samples from 50 patients with superficial fungal infections were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol and cycloheximide (actidione) and studied using FTIR microspectroscopy. Spectra of the same species were identical, whereas spectra of different species did not show similarity. This study showed that FTIR microspectroscopy is promising and can be used to obtain, with a single measurement, a "molecular fingerprint" of Candida and dermatophyte species. It can be improved further in terms of reliability.

Recent trends in rapid diagnostic techniques for dermatophytosis

“…All showed impactive results only when it was associating a laboratory-made database, which is laborious and time-consuming in most cases [28], with a trial to extend the existing MALDI-TOF fungal knowledge database to allow the better robust identification of clinically relevant dermatophytes [29], different studies showed an extensive range of accuracy 13.5% to 100% due to inconsistencies concerning critical steps of the routine pre-analysis preparation laboratory process [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. According to the obtained results, some studies showed that MALDI-TOF is an excellent complementary for conventional culturing in routine dermatophytes diagnosis [29,33,36,[39][40][41].…”

Authenticating Edible Oils Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy: A Review

“…Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is an archaic technique for obtaining information on complex structures, such as identifying unknown samples, determining sample consistency, and determining the number of components in a mixture [1]. Sir William Hershel discovered the IR radiation in 1800 [2].…”