RAPID SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING OF CANDIDA SPECIES BY FLOW CYTOMETRY

Abstract

Rapid and reliable antifungal susceptibility testing has become particularly important in recent years because of the increased incidence of serious fungal infections and the concomitant emergence of antifungal drug resistance. The introduction of new antifungal agents and the recovery of clinical isolates that exhibit inherent or developed resistance to antifungal agents also increase the needs for proper susceptibility testing.

The National Committee for Clinical Laboratory " Standards has established a reference method for antifungal susceptibility testing Document M27-A by macro and microdilution techniques. Flow cytometry has been successfully used to provide rapid, comparable, and reproducible antifungal susceptibility testing results.

In the present work, 50 Candida isolates from different patients' specimens (urinary, respiratory, pus, blood, and ascitic fluid) were isolated and collected from Ain Shams University Hospital Laboratories. Identification of Candida isolates to the species level was carried out . by morphological characters, cultural characters, germ tube test, and biochemical reactions. The most common species isolated were C. albicans (48%), C.. tropicalis (40%), and other types (12%) (C. parapsilosis, C. lusitaniae, C. glabarata, and C. krusei).