Epidemiology and Antifungal Susceptibility of Candida Species Isolated From 10 Tertiary Care Hospitals in Iran Publisher Pubmed



Badiee P¹ ; Boekhout T^{2, 3} ; Haddadi P⁴ ; Mohammadi R⁵ ; Ghadimimoghadam A⁶ ; Soltani J⁷ ; Mahmoudabadi AZ⁸ ; Ayatollahi Mousavi SA⁹ ; Najafzadeh MJ¹⁰ ; Diba K¹¹ ; Salimikhorashad AR¹² ; Shahidi MA¹ ; Ghasemi F¹ ; Jafarian H¹
Source: Microbiology Spectrum Published:2022

Abstract

In recent decades, the incidence of Candida infections has increased in immunocompromised patients. This multicenter study aimed to evaluate in vitro antifungal activities of 8 antifungal agents against the Candida species isolated from 10 university hospitals in Iran. During the period from Dec 2019 to Dec 2021, Candida species were collected from clinical samples of patients. The isolates were identified by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing methods. The antifungal susceptibility tests of each isolate to eight antifungal agents were performed according to the microdilution CLSI M27, M59, and M60 standard methods. A total of 598 Candida strains were isolated from clinical samples. The most commonly isolated Candida species was C. albicans, followed by C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, Debaryomyces hansenii (Candida famata), C. tropicalis, Pichia kudriavzevii (Candida krusei), C. orthopsilosis, Meyerozyma guilliermondii (Candida guilliermondii), Kluyveromyces marxianus (Candida kefyr), and Clavispora lusitaniae (Candida lusitaniae). MIC90 values in all Candida species were as follows: 0.25 mg/mL for caspofungin and voriconazole; 0.5 mg/mL for amphotericin B and isavuconazole; 2 mg/mL for itraconazole, luliconazole, and posaconazole; and 16 mg/mL for fluconazole. Although 30/285 C. albicans, 15/31 C. hansenii, 3/12 M. guilliermondii, 67/125 C. glabrata, 5/15 P. kudriavzevii, 6/60 C. parapsilosis, and 5/23 C. tropicalis isolates were multiazole resistant with resistance to 2 to 4 azoles, pan-azole resistance was not observed. According to our data, Candida albicans and C. glabrata were the most frequent species isolated from clinical samples in Iran. Caspofungin and voriconazole, with lower MIC90 values, are the most effective than other antifungal agents for the treatment of Candida infections in this region. © 2022 Badiee et al.