Evaluation of CHROMagar candida for rapid identification and Etest for antifungal susceptibility testing in a district general hospital laboratory
- Department of Microbiology, North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust, London N18 1QX, UK
The incidence and clinical importance of fungal infections in immunocompromised patients is increasing, and the isolation of multiple yeast species from clinical specimens is not uncommon. Candida albicans remains the most frequently isolated yeast species; but others, inherently or potentially resistant to amphotericin B and azole compounds (C krusei, C parapsilosis, C lusitaniae, C tropicalis, and C glabrata), are also being reported.1
Unlike sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) (LabM, Bury, UK), CHROMagar candida (Mast Diagnostics, Bootle, UK), a chromogenic, differential culture medium, can detect mixed populations and facilitate rapid, accurate identification of C albicans.2
The procedure for antifungal susceptibility testing by the broth based NCCLS reference method M27-A is time consuming.3 The Etest (AB BIODISK, Solna, Sweden), a simple alternative agar based quantitative diffusion method, can be readily incorporated into a clinical laboratory routine.4
Over a period of 10 weeks, 31 yeast isolates were recovered on SDA, from 22 patients in …
