title: Candida tropicalis as a Predominant Isolate from Clinical Specimens and its Antifungal Susceptibility Pattern in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Southern India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The incidence of infections caused by Candida species has increased considerably over the past three decades mainly due to the rise of the AIDS epidemic, an increasingly aged population, higher numbers of immunocompromised patients and the more widespread use of indwelling medical devices. Candida tropicalis is emerging pathogenic yeast among non-albicans species. Recently drug-resistant C.tropicalis was also reported in hospitals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study aimed to isolate and speciate C. tropicalis from various clinical samples and to determine its antifungal susceptibility profile.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical samples such as urine, blood, exudates and vaginal swab which were submitted to the Microbiology laboratory during the year 2013 were screened for the growth of Candidia species, which then identified as C.tropicalis by the routine microbiological procedures such as germ tube formation, assimilation and fermentation of sugars and colony color on HICHROM Candida agar. Antifungal susceptibility was performed by disc diffusion method with the drugs Amphotericin-B, Itraconazole, Ketaconazole and Fluconazole on C. tropicalis isolates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total number of 112 Candida isolates were isolated during the year 2012 from various clinical specimens. Among them 61 (54.3%) were identified as C.tropicalis. All the C. tropicalis isolates were sensitive to Amphotericin-B (100%) but 23 isolates (37.7%) were resistant to Fluconazole.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that identification of Candida species is important to know the prevalent species in the clinical setup and routine antifungal susceptibility should be performed to avoid inappropriate treatment.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Christian Medical College , Vellore, India .
authors.forename: Binesh Lal
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Yesudhason
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Microbiology, Matha Medical College , Thandalam, Chennai, India .
authors.forename: Kalyani
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mohanram
keywords: Chrom agar; Drug-resistance; Prevalence