Determination of Prevalence and Drug Resistance Profile of Candida Species in patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis from Zanjan, Iran

Introduction and Objectives: Candida infection is one of the most common causes of vulvovaginitis in women. In recent decades, due to the increased use of Broad-spectrum azole agents, resistance to Candida species has been reported. The aim of this study was to determine species distribution and antifungal susceptibility pattern of Candida species causing vulvovaginal candidiasis. Materials and Methods: In this study, 140 patients with suspected vulvovaginal candidiasis were examined. Samples were inoculated onto to Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) and CHROMagar. After identification, isolates were tested for in-vitro susceptibilities fluconazole, itraconazole and ketoconazole as described by the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) M27-A3 and M27-S4 document guidelines. Results: In total, 41 (29.3%) colonies of Candida spp. were isolated from 140 patients with Vulvovaginal Candidiasis. The most common identified species of Candida were C. glabrata (56.1%) and C. albicans (39%). The results indicate high resistance to azole drugs, as resistance to ketoconazole, itraconazole and fluconazole was found to be 65.9%, 5 and 58.5% and 26.8%, respectively. Conclusions: The results showed that non-albicans species of Candida are more frequent than C. albicans in patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis. This result is consistent with some recent studies indicating that non-albicans species of Candida has increased and must be considered in gynecology clinics due to the reported azole resistance in these species. Also, it is important to conduct continuous epidemiological surveys to measure drug resistance profile and epidemiological changes.

کلیدواژه ها:

Candida ، Candidiasis ، Vulvovaginitis ، Antifungal ، Drug resistance