Prevalence and Antifungal Susceptibility of Yeasts Obtained from the Oral Cavity of Elderly Individuals

Abstract

Infections caused by Candida yeasts are common in elderly individuals. Seventy-five isolates of Candida spp. were obtained from saliva samples of 136 institutionalized elderly individuals resident in six retirement homes of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Forty-seven isolates (62.66%) were identified as Candida albicans, 15 (20%) as C. tropicalis, 7 (9.33%) as C. glabrata, 4 (5.33) as C. parapsilosis, and 2 (2.67%) as C. guilliermondii. Among the 136 elderly individuals studied, 49 (36%) were male and 87 (64%) were female. Ages ranged from 60 to 90 years old. Sixty-three (46.3%) of the institutionalized individuals were denture wearers and, among them, 53 (84.1%) carried Candida yeasts in the oral cavity. Forty-four subjects presented lesions in the oral mucosa and among these, 36 (82%), had positive culture for Candida spp. The samples were tested for the in vitro susceptibility to amphotericin B, itraconazole, fluconazole and 5-flucytosin, and great variations were observed in the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of these drugs according to the species.

Epidemiology and phospholipase activity of oral Candida spp. among patients with central nervous system diseases before and after dental cleaning procedure

“…In addition, non albicans species ( C. parapsilosis , C. krusei and C. kefyr ) were more frequently (p < 0.01) after the treatment. C. tropicalis was not isolated from the patients of this study, differing from other researchers that obtained this species as the second most common in oral cavity (13). Erköse and Erturan (3) found that C. albicans was the most frequent isolated from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus, corresponding to 82.8% of the studied patients.…”

“…On the other hand, Resende et al . (13) and Oksuz et al . (11) obtained C. albicans isolation from 62.66% and 66.4% of the patients from their works.…”

Antifungal suscepitibility profile of candida spp. oral isolates obtained from denture wearers

“…samples obtained from healthy individuals, with no signs of oral candidiasis. Several studies have reported the prevalence and antifungal susceptibility testing in individuals with oral candidiasis manifestations (2,4,10,14), but only a few studies have focused on samples obtained from Candida carriers without signs of infection (21).…”

Denture contamination by yeasts in the elderly

“…Candida albicans is the yeast species most frequently found in isolates; the other yeasts encountered are: Candida tropicalis, Candida krusei, Candida guilliermondii, Candida stellatoidea, Candida parapsilosis and Candida glabrata 5 . Yeast infections often affect the elderly [5][6][7][8] . Moreover, some authors 9 have shown a significant association between mouth colonisation and infection by yeasts.…”