Candida speciation using chrom agar and to evaluate susceptibility of candida species to antifungal drugs

Candida species colonize the mucosal surfaces of all humans soon after birth. They are the most common cause of fungal infections which includes simple mucocutaneous to severe invasive infections. Apart from candida albicans, most common candida species causing infections in humans are candida tropicalis, candida parapsilosis, candida krusei, candidadubliniensis. Though C.albicans dominates all candidial isolates recovered from yeast infections, more recently Non Albicans Candida (NAC) species have been recovered with increasing frequency. The incidence of opportunistic fungal infections such as candidiasis has considerably increased in recent years. It is important to rapidly and reliably identify C.albicans as well as other Candida speciesin routine clinicalmicrobiology practice.
CHROMagar is a differential medium which is developed to produce rapid yeast identification. This medium contains substrates that react with enzymes secreted by microorganisms producing colonies with various degree of pigmentation. Since molecular techniques are too expensive using of CHROM agar for species differentiation would be of benefit for easy, cost effective and rapid speciation. Previous studies identifying candida to species level have shown that there is increased incidence of NAC species in these patients. The antifungal susceptibility of fuconazole has been altered in C.albicans and NAC with increased resistance to fluconazole. Hence an attempt was made to identify Candida at species level and evaluate their susceptibility to different antifungal drugs.