Distribution of Clinical Isolates of Candida Species among Clinical Specimens in a Tertiary Care Center

Abstract

Introduction
Candida species are the most common cause of mycosis, especially among patients who are immunocompromised, receiving broad spectrum antimicrobial therapy and/or chemotherapy, hospitalized and with diabetes mellitus. The increasing cases of Candida infection by its different species is a subject of concern because each species possess different characteristics features to fail the treatment. Thus, speciation and its prevalence is imperative for the management of candidiasis infection.
Methods
This is a laboratory-based cross-sectional descriptive study. A total of 149 isolates of Candida were identified from 16,234 clinical specimens and those specimens were processed at Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Growth on Sabouraud dextrose agar were evaluated for colony appearance, germ tube test, chlamydospore formation on corn meal agar and Candida speciation from CHROMagar. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and  all the statistical evaluation were done by using SPSS version 16.0 software.
Results
C. albicans was  the most common isolate out of 149 Candida spp. which was 53.70% of total isolates. Similarly, among NAC species C. tropicalis was the most common isolate followed by C. krusei, C. dubliniensis, C. parapsilosis and C. glabrata. The study revealed that the prevalence of isolates is 0.92% in overall specimens.
Conclusion
Although C. albicans is the most common isolate of Candida spp., NAC species infection is increasing especially in case of urine and blood stream infection.