Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis analysis of Candida albicans isolates from three intensive care units. An epidemiological study

Abstract

To evaluate the mechanism and risk factor associated with the nosocomial acquisition of Candida albicans, a 3-month prospective study was conducted on non-neutropenic patients in three distinct intensive care units in distinct hospitals. A total of 43 samples from 19 patients has been typed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE). Samples (24) from the deep pharynx of hospital staff members were also cultured and typed. Thirteen of the 19 enzyme loci studied were polymorphic. The 52 electrophoretic types were assigned to 67 isolates, each type was represented by one to five isolates; this proved the great diversity of the isolates. It appeared that most patients were colonized or infected with different C. albicans strains. This study pointed out a possible cross-infection between patients and hospital staff and between healthy members of the hospital staff, and also showed the successive stages of infection by different electrophoretic types. Intubation and respiratory equipment as surgery intervention were possible sources of observed infections.

In vitro susceptibility of yeasts isolated from patients in intensive care units to fluconazole and amphotericin B during a 3‐year period

“…Palabiyikoglu et al (17) found that the colonization rate of C. albicans in mechanically ventilated patients who were hospitalized in the ICU was low (12%). Many studies have reported that the colonization rate of yeasts was high in immunosuppressed and hematological patients (3, 11, 18–21). Our study did not include immunosuppressed patients.…”

The Ins and Outs of DNA Fingerprinting the Infectious Fungi

“…In addition to this general observation, several very interesting and potentially important observations have been made on the basis of DNA fingerprinting. In several studies of candidemias, the DNA fingerprints of isolates from some health care workers matched those causing the candidemias (8,22,29,94,410). For example, Doebbeling et al (94) found, using RFLP patterns, that C. tropicalis isolates from eight sternal wound infections were similar to each other and to an isolate from the scrub nurse.…”

“…MLEE has been used to fingerprint C. albicans (8,9,17,34,35,67,91,179,180,182,234,288,291,292,301,321), C. tropicalis (95,180), Candida lusitaniae (220), Candida haemu-FIG. 1.…”

Molecular methods for strain typing of Candida albicans : a review

“…In addition, it is assumed that in diploid organisms, enzyme expression is co-dominant, that is, every allele at a locus is expressed, alleles being rarely missing. MLEE may provide valid measures of genetic distance because it assesses defined multilocus differences and information relevant to population genetic studies as well as to epidemiology (Pujol et al 1993;Arnavielhe et al 1997).…”

“…MLEE is one of the earliest methods used for genetic and epidemiological studies of C. albicans and provided the first insight into the populations' structure of the species (Caugant and Sandven 1993;Pujol et al 1993;Arnavielhe et al 1997). It has been further used to fingerprint other Candida species (e.g.…”