engleski

Occurrence and antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp. isolated from clinical specimens in a Univerity Hospital of Split in 2018

Background and aim: Fungal infections, especially invasive infections caused by different Candida species, represent one of the major clinical concern. Epidemiology of invasive and non-invasive candidiasis has significantly changed over the last decades, as much in prevalence of individual species, as in development of resistance to antifungal drugs. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of the most significant Candida species and their antifungal susceptibility profile in the University Hospital of Split (UHS), Croatia. Methods: All non-duplicated candida isolates from significant clinical specimens that were collected and tested for antifungal susceptibility at the Department of Microbiology UHS, in 2018, were included in the study. Repetative strains were not included. Chi-square test was used and the level of statistical significance was set to p≤0.05. Results: Overall, 146 Candida isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility, out of which 79 % belonged to non- albicans species, which is significantly higher than the number of tested C. albicans isolates (21 %). The most predominant non-albicans isolates were C. glabrata (32 %) and C. parapsilosis (27 %). Resistance of non-albicans species to fluconazole (76 %) was significantly higher than the resistance of C. albicans (33 %). Results of this study showed that 25.8 % of tested C. albicans isolates and 16 % of non- albicans isolates were resistant to echinocandins. Also, significant difference in resistance to voriconazol was found (47 % of non-albicans and 10 % of C. albicans strains). The lowest resistant rate was to amphotericine B (10 % of C. albicans and 3 % of non-albicans isolates). Conclusions: Higher proportion of non-albicans Candida isolates, as well as resistance to frequently used antifungal drugs (fluconazole and echinocandins), emphasizes the need of continuous surveillance and susceptibility testing of different Candida species to antifungal drugs, in order to establish the best algorithm for empirical and final antifungal therapy.

antifungal susceptibility, Candida spp

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