title: Asymptomatic oral carriage of Candida species in HIV-infected patients in the highly active antiretroviral therapy era.
abstract: Oropharyngeal candidiasis is the most common opportunistic fungal infection in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus. CD4+ lymphocytes count and the quantification of viral RNA in blood plasma have been found to be the main markers of HIV disease progression. The present study was conducted to evaluate Candida sp. diversity in the oral cavity of HIV-infected patients and to determine whether there was association of CD4+ cell count and viral load with asymptomatic oral Candida carriage. Out of 99 HIV-positive patients studied, 62 (62.6%) had positive culture for Candida (oral carriage) and 37 patients (37.4%) had Candida negative culture (no oral carriage). The etiologic agents most common were C. albicans and C. tropicalis. The range of CD4+ was 6-2305 cells/mm3 in colonized patients and 3-839 cells/mm3 for non-colonized patients, while the viral load was 60-90016 copies/mL for colonized patients and 75-110488 copies/mL for non colonized patients. The viral load was undetectable in 15 colonized patients and in 12 non colonized patients. Our results showed that there was no significant difference of the variables CD4+ cell count and viral load between oral candida carriage and no oral candida carriage patients.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Micologia, Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saúde Pública, Universidade Federal de Goiás, and Hospital de Doenças Tropicais de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: Carolina Rodrigues
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Ana Joaquina
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Orionalda Fátima Lisboa
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Karla Carvalho
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.forename: Xisto Sena
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Passos
authors.forename: Lúcia Kioko Hasimoto
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: do Rosário Rodrigues Silva
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D002175:Candida / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002353:Carrier State; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009055:Mouth / Q000382:microbiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D019562:Viral Load