ISSN:
1600-0714
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Background: In contrast to the immunosupressed patient population, the prevalence of fluconazole-resistant strains of Candida albicans among healthy individuals has not been extensively studied.Methods: Candida species were cultured form 50 healthy outpatients with clinical signs of oral candidiasis. Following one week of the recommended fluconazole regimen, post-treatment cultures were obtained. Both pre- and post-treatment yeasts were identified and in vitro susceptibility testing was performed using the NCCLS M-27A method. Strains were further differentiated using established cDNA probes.Results: Forty-four patients (88%) had positive C.albicans cultures prior to treatment. Antifungal susceptibility testing of these strains demonstrated no in vitro resistance to fluconazole. At post-treatment evaluation, eight patients (18%) had persistent signs of infection and 10 patients (23%) had positive Candida sp. cultures despite no clinical signs of infection. DNA analysis confirmed that the same C. albicans strain was present both in the pre-treatment and the post-treatment cultures.Conclusions: Our results showed that the presence of fluconazole-resistant strains of C.albicans does not appear to be prevalent among healthy outpatients furthermore, in vitro antifungal susceptibility testing does not always predict successful therapy in these patients.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0714.2002.310207.x
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