Antifungal resistance of candida isolates obtained from various specimens of intensive care unit patients

Objectives: In this study; we aimed to determine the identificationof yeasts from the samples of the patients thatcome from Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit of Diyarbak rEducation and Research Hospital and also we aimed toperform the antifungal susceptibility testing of yeasts.Materials and methods: Antifungal susceptibility test resultsof yeasts that isolated from 25 blood, 24 urine, 3sputum and 3 peritoneal fluid samples of the patients thatcome from Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit to our laboratoryduring the period December 2009 - Septemberl/2010were evaluated.The yeasts identified by germ tube test, cornmeal tween80 and VITEC 2 Compact (Biomerieux, France) yeastidentification system. The antifungal susceptibility testswere performed for amphotericin B, flucytosine, fluconazoleand voriconazole by using VITEC 2 Compact (Biomerieux, France) system.Results: 56.36% of the yeasts were determined asC.albicans which was the most common yeast followedby; C.parapsilosis (30.9%), C.tropicalis (10.6%),C.tropicalis (5.45%), C.dubliniensis (3,63%), C.glabrata(1.81%) and C.guilliermondi (1.81%). According to theresults of antifungal susceptibility tests, the resistancerate for fluconazole and variconazole were 1.81% and3.63% respectively. However no resistance were detectedagainst amphotericin B and flucytosine.Conclusions: Our results shows that C.albicans is themost common yeast isolated from the patients at intensivecare unit in our hospital. Increased resistance to fluconazolewhich is frequently used for empirical treatmentdemostrates importance of antifungal susceptibility tests.