Does identification to species level provide sufficient evidence to confirm catheter-related fungemia caused by Candida albicans?

Abstract

We retrospectively studied 22 patients with catheter-related candidemia caused by Candida albicans. Strains isolated simultaneously from blood and catheter tips were genotyped using six microsatellite markers. Matches between genotypes of isolates recovered from both sample sources were found in 20/22 (91%) patients. Consequently, identification of the same species from both the catheter tip and blood could be used to confirm catheter-related candidemia.

Keywords:

• C. albicans
• catheter-related candidemia
• candidemia
• genotyping
• short tandem repeats
• microsatellites
• blood culture
• catheter tip culture

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Thomas O’Boyle for editing and proofreading the article. This work was supported by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (grants number PI11/00167 and PI10/02868) and Santander-Universidad Complutense de Madrid (GR35/10-A). P. Escribano (CD09/00230), J. Guinea (MS09/00055), and L. J. Marcos-Zambrano (FI12/00265) are supported by the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria.

Ainhoa Simon Zarate holds a grant from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria and provides technical support in the Linea Instrumental Secuenciación. The 3130xl Genetic Analyzer was partially financed by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (IF01-3624, IF08-36173).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 1 July 2013.