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Yeasts isolated from clinical samples of AIDS patients

Leveduras isoladas de materiais clínicos de pacientes com AIDS

Abstracts

In order to investigate yeasts in oropharyngeal secretion, urine, sputum and inguinal scales from AIDS patients, clinical samples were collected from one hundred patients interned in the Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Sector of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and in Hospital Universitário Osvaldo Cruz of the Universidade de Pernambuco. Yeasts were isolated from seventy-two out of one hundred and eight clinical samples. The isolated yeasts were: Candida albicans (sixty-two isolates), Candida tropicalis (four isolates), Candida glabrata (two isolates), Candida parapsilosis (two isolates), Candida krusei (one isolate) and Trichosporon pullulans (one isolate).

Yeasts; AIDS; Candida spp


Para investigar leveduras em amostras clínicas de secreção orofaríngea, urina, esputo e escamas inguinais em pacientes com AIDS, foram realizadas coletas em 100 pacientes internos no setor de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco e do Hospital Universitário Osvaldo Cruz da Universidade de Pernambuco. Foram isoladas leveduras em setenta e duas amostras clínicas, sendo sessenta e duas de Candida albicans, quatro de C. tropicalis, duas de C. glabrata, duas de C. parapsilosis, uma de C. krusei e uma de Trichosporon pullulans.

Leveduras; AIDS; Candida spp


Yeasts isolated from clinical samples of AIDS patients

Leveduras isoladas de materiais clínicos de pacientes com AIDS

Rejane Pereira Neves; Maria Auxiliadora de Q. Cavalcanti; Guilherme Maranhão Chaves; Oliane M.C. Magalhães

Departamento de Micologia, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil

Correspondence

SHORT COMMUNICATION

ABSTRACT

In order to investigate yeasts in oropharyngeal secretion, urine, sputum and inguinal scales from AIDS patients, clinical samples were collected from one hundred patients interned in the Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Sector of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and in Hospital Universitário Osvaldo Cruz of the Universidade de Pernambuco. Yeasts were isolated from seventy-two out of one hundred and eight clinical samples. The isolated yeasts were: Candida albicans (sixty-two isolates), Candida tropicalis (four isolates), Candida glabrata (two isolates), Candida parapsilosis (two isolates), Candida krusei (one isolate) and Trichosporon pullulans (one isolate).

Key words: Yeasts, AIDS, Candida spp

RESUMO

Para investigar leveduras em amostras clínicas de secreção orofaríngea, urina, esputo e escamas inguinais em pacientes com AIDS, foram realizadas coletas em 100 pacientes internos no setor de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias do Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco e do Hospital Universitário Osvaldo Cruz da Universidade de Pernambuco. Foram isoladas leveduras em setenta e duas amostras clínicas, sendo sessenta e duas de Candida albicans, quatro de C. tropicalis, duas de C. glabrata, duas de C. parapsilosis, uma de C. krusei e uma de Trichosporon pullulans.

Palavras-chave: Leveduras, AIDS, Candida spp

Fungi and other microorganisms are present in the oral cavity and also in mucous inflammatory lesions (5). The isolation of species of Candida in oral candidiasis has been shown to increased with the advance of HIV infection.

C. albicans has been isolated from various sources (3,20), and is considered to be the most pathogenic species and frequently isolated from oral diseases in immunocompromised individuals (13). However, over the past decades the incidence of infections caused by other Candida species including C. tropicalis, C. glabrata, C. krusei and other genera such as Trichosporon and Cryptococcus has been reported (6,9,21). However, infections caused by Trichosporon are rare (18).

Considering the increasing number of cases of AIDS in Pernambuco, Brazil, and the susceptibility to opportunistic mycosis, the objective of this study was to isolate and identify yeasts in clinical samples of AIDS patients.

From one hundred AIDS patients (75 male and 25 female), interned at the Sector of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (DIP) of the Hospital das Clínicas (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) and Hospital Universitário Osvaldo Cruz (Universidade de Pernambuco), 108 clinical samples (95 from the oropharyngeal secretion, 11 from urine, one sputum and one from inguinal scale) were collected. The samples were spread on Petri dishes containing Sabouraud agar medium with 50 mg/l of yeast extract and 50 mg chloramphenicol/l (10) and maintained at room temperature (28º C ± 1ºC). The growth of the cultures was monitored for 15 days, when the colonies were transferred to tubes with Sabouraud agar medium and maintained at room temperature.

The strains were identified according to Barnett et al. (1), Kreger-van Rij (8) and Lodder (11) and by assimilation patterns, using the comercial kit CANDIFAST – REF. 44008 (Interlab).

Seventy-two strains of yeasts, 69 from oropharingeal secretion, one from urine, one from sputum and one from inguinal scale, were isolated. The failure to isolate yeasts from the remaining 36 clinical samples was probably due to the presence of fast growing chloramphenicol resistant bacteria.

The isolated yeasts strains were identified as C. albicans (sixty-two strains), C. tropicalis (four strains), C. glabrata (two strains) and C. parapsilosis (two strains), C. krusei (one strain) and Trichosporon pullulans (one strain). The results show predominance of C. albicans in oropharyngeal candidiasis in AIDS patients, as also mentioned by other authors (2,4,9,10). The other species also cause mycosis under favorable conditions, and have also been isolated from AIDS patients (12,14,15,17).

Trichosporon pullulans, isolated from oropharingeal secretion, was reported in leukaemia patients with lung infection (18), and blood cancer patients using a catheter (9). Despite being known as an etiological agent of mycosis in immunocompromised individuals with other pathologies (9,18), this is probably the first citation of T. pullulans in AIDS patients. The comensal nature of Candida species emphasizes the opportunistic characteristics of oral candidiasis since they are observed in approximetely 50% of healthy individuals (16,19).

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    18 June 2003
  • Date of issue
    Dec 2002

History

  • Accepted
    05 Dec 2002
  • Reviewed
    18 Apr 2002
  • Received
    30 Jan 2002
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