Diabetes mellitus, a endocrine-metabolic disease, of high and increasing prevalence, is cited as responsible by the occurrence of oral candidiasis. Candidiasis constitutes a specter of infections caused by fungi of genera Candida; the most common agent is Candida albicans, but other species have also been identified (Candida tropicalis, Candida guillermondii, Candida glabrata, Candida krusei). The objective of this work was to evaluate frequency and enzymatic activity of Candida spp. in the oral cavity of diabetic patients taken care in the service of endocrinology of the University Hospital Walter Cantídio of the Federal University of the Ceará. Samples had been collected of 48 diabetic patients, men and women, with various situations of glicemic control. Clinical materials had been collected with aid of swab and harvested in plates of Petri contend Sabouraud agar dextrose with cloranfenicol and incubated to 37°C. The grown were identified by the used classic tests in mycology. In the following, these Candida strains were submitted to tests to detect phospholipase and proteinase enzymes. Of these, 15 samples (31,35%) presented positive culture for the genera Candida. The species more frequent was C. albicans with 80%, followed by C. tropicalis (13.3%) and C. guilliermondii (6.7%). Asfor the research on the enzymatic activity of Candida sp. it was observed that 86.6% presented activity of proteinase and 80% of phospholipase. It was concluded with these results that C. albicans is more frequent and that Candida spp. isolated species have strong enzymatic activity.
Candida spp.; Diabetes mellitus; Oral cavity; Enzymatic activity
