Nidhi Singh and Jayanthi Abraham
Profiling and antifungal susceptibility of Candida sp. in blood was conducted and the specimens were collected from Thanjavur Medical College, Thanjavur, India. A total of 31 isolates were selected for prospective analysis over a period of 6 months. Candidemia was diagnosed by positive blood culture bottles. Candida sp. were identified to species level by germ tube test, Hi- Chrome Candida agar, methyl blue SDA agar, rapid trehalose and maltose test, corn meal agar and sugar fermentation tests using standard techniques. All the Candida isolates were tested for antifungal susceptibility to amphotericin B and fluconazole by the disc diffusion method. Most frequent isolates were C. parapsilosis (66%), C. tropicalis (19%), C. albicans (6%), C. glabrata (6%) and C. guillermondii (3%). About 6.5% polymicrobial candidemia has been described. Most of the blood isolates were from the Intensive Care Units (ICU) (81%) especially neonatal (61%) and few from other wards (19%). 84% isolates were resistance to fluconazole, 56% isolates were resistant to voriconazole and 16% isolates were resistance to amphotericin B. Among the isolates C. parapsilosis was found to be predominant in occurrence. Most of the isolates were resistant to fluconazole
