Isolation, Identification and Speciation of Candida Species From Various Clinical Samples in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Karnataka, India

Abstract

BACKGROUNDCandida species cause different clinical infections ranging from mucocutaneous infection to life threatening invasive diseases. They cause secondary infection in immunocompromised individuals. Candidiasis is a common fungal disease in humans. During the last decade, an increase in the prevalence of non-albicans candida species has been noted because of increased use of azoles. We aimed to isolate Candida species, find its frequency from various clinical samples and speciate Candida using chromogenic medium. MATERIALS AND METHODSA total of 100 Candida isolates from various clinical samples were included in the study. Colony on Sabouraud dextrose agar was processed to identify the Candida species using conventional methods. Simultaneously, they were processed for Candida speciation on commercially available CHROMagar (HiMedia, India). RESULTSIn the present study, majority of isolates were from high vaginal swab (33%) followed by sputum (27%), urine (18%), pus from surgical sites and others constituted to 22%. Candida albicans (54%) was the most common candida species, followed by C. tropicalis (24%), C. krusei (14%), C. glabrata (7%) and C. dubliniensis (1%). CONCLUSIONCandida albicans was the predominant species causing Candidiasis. Along with Candida albicans, non-albicans candida (NAC) spp. like C. tropicalis, C. krusei, C. glabrata, and C. dubliniensis are increasingly being isolated from clinical samples. CHROMagar is a simple, easy, rapid, reliable and inexpensive method for identification of candida species. Characterization of candida to species level is important for early treatment decisions and effective management as some NAC species are intrinsically resistant to antifungal agents. CHROMagar is useful for the primary isolation and differentiation of medically important Candida species.

Profiling and Speciation of Candida Species by Using Hichrome Agar From Various Clinical and Postmortem Samples in Livestock and Poultry

“…When a specific enzyme cleaves the substrate, the chromogenic substances produce color (Vijaya et al, 2011 andSoumya et al, 2016). The action of different enzymes produced by yeast species results in color variation which is useful for the presumptive identification of some yeast infection and chromogenic medium is it greatly facilitates the detection of specimens containing a mixture of yeast species though there were no mixed cultures in the recent study (Rudrappa et al, 2018 andRao et al, 2019). The prompt detection of such clinical scenarios of multiple yeast etiology may be an aid for early appropriate treatment decisions (Samyuktha et al, 2017 andSankari et al, 2019) What does the study add to the existing knowledge?…”

Especies y sensibilidad a antifúngicos de cepas de Candida spp. aisladas de la cavidad bucal de pacientes con VIH de Paraguay

“…Entre las especies de C. no albicans se identificaron C. tropicalis y C. krusei, en mayor proporción (8,3 % y 5 %, respectivamente), coincidiendo en las especies predominantes con Garzón et al, quienes obtuvieron 18,8 % de C. tropicalis y 12,5 % de C. krusei (28) . La identificación de Candida a nivel de especie es importante ya que algunas cepas poseen resistencia intrínseca a los agentes antifúngicos empleados habitualmente (29) . Nweze et al en Nigeria, encontraron una prevalencia elevada de C. tropicalis con 18,3 % y C. parapsilosis con 15 % (4) .…”