BACKGROUND

Candida infections range from oral candidiasis to candida endophthalmitis, peritonitis and candidemia. Invasive fungal disease or disseminated candidiasis is highly fatal among children. There are no studies done in the pediatric population to detect early candida infection to help identify those who will benefit from early and prompt medical treatment.

This study determined the value of Candida scoring (CS) as a predictive tool for invasive candidiasis among pediatric patients admitted in the intensive care units of a tertiary referral center.

This was a retrospective cross sectional study where 4184 charts of pediatric patients and admitted in the ICU between January 2018 to December 2020 were reviewed. Patients were scored upon admission, after 3 days, after 1 week and weekly thereafter until discharge or demise. The scoring tool used was developed by Leon et al., and uses four variables: presence of sepsis, use of total parenteral nutrition (TPN), presence of multifocal colonization and presence of surgery. Data collected for Candida scores were presented as frequencies and percentages.

There were 396 patients enrolled in this study and 25.7% were treated for candida infection. Majority were newborns where 78.7% had a CS >3, which is statistically significant, p =3 which is statistically significant. Among intubated patients, 84% had a CS of >3 and all patients on TPN had a CS of >3, both of which are significant. CS could correctly predict 64.6% of patients who will likely have candida infection.

Candida scoring is a tool that can be used in patients at high risk of developing Candida infection. In this study, a CS of >3 can be used to predict Candida infection in the ICU.

Objective: To establish a nested recombinant enzyme-assisted polymerase chain reaction (RAP) technique combined with recombined mannose-binding lectin protein (M1 protein)-magnetic beads enrichment for the detection of Candida albicans (C. albicans) and Candida tropicalis (C. tropicalis) in blood samples for the early diagnosis of candidemia albicans and candidiemia tropicalis. Methods: The primer probes for highly conserved regions of the internal transcribed spacerregions of C. albicans and C. tropicalis were deigned to establish RAP assays for the detections of C. albicans and C. tropicalis; The sensitivity and reproducibility of nucleic acid tests with gradient dilutions of standard strains and specificity of nucleic acid tests with common clinical pathogens causing bloodstream infection were condcuted. M1 protein-magnetic bead enriched plasma C. albicans and C. tropicalis were used for RAP and PCR in with simulated samples and the results were compared. Results: The sensitivity of the established dual RAP assay was 2.4-2.8 copies/reaction, with higher reproducibility and specificity. M1 protein-magnetic bead enrichment of pathogen combined with the dual RAP assay could complete the detections of C. albicans and C. tropicalis in plasma within 4 hours. Fie the pathogen samples at concentration <10 CFU/ml, the number of the samples tested by RAP was higher than that tested by PCR after enrichment. Conclusion: In this study, a dual RAP assay for the detections of C. albicans and C. tropicalis in blood sample was developed, which has the advantages of accuracy, rapidity, and less contaminants and has great potential for rapid detection of Candidemia.
Humans ; Lectins ; Candida ; Candidemia ; Reproducibility of Results ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Nucleic Acids ; Magnetic Phenomena

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiological, clinical and mycological characteristics of invasive candidiasis (IC) in China. Methods: A ten-year retrospective study including 183 IC episodes was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Beijing, China. Results: The overall incidence of IC from 2010-2019 was 0.261 episodes per 1,000 discharges. Candidemia (71.0%) was the major infective pattern; 70.3% of the patients tested positive for Conclusion The incidence of IC has declined in the recent five years.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antifungal Agents/pharmacology* ; Candidiasis, Invasive/microbiology* ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China/epidemiology* ; Drug Resistance, Fungal ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Tertiary Care Centers/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the etiological and clinical characteristics of immunocompetent patients with candidemia. METHODS: The clinical and microbiological data of patients diagnosed as candidemia admitted in Peking University Third Hospital from January 2010 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Underlying diseases, Candida spp. colonization, clinical manifestations, microbiological data, treatment and the outcome were compared between the HIV-negative immunocompromised (IC) and nonimmunocompromised (NIC) patients. RESULTS: A total of 62 cases diagnosed as candidemia were analyzed including 36 men and 26 women, with 16 to 100 years of age [(66.02±17.65) years]. There were 30 NIC and 32 HIV-negative IC patients respectively. In the NIC patients, there were 19 cases (19/30, 63.33%) with admission in intensive care unit (ICU), 21 (21/30, 70.00%) associated diabetes mellitus or uncontrolled hyperglycemia and 22 (22/30,73.33%) receiving invasive mechanical ventilation, while in the HIV-negative IC patients, there were 8 (8/32, 25.00%), 13 (13/32, 40.63%) and 7 (7/32, 21.88%) respectively (P<0.05). The NIC patients had higher acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE II) scores and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores both at admission (19.98±5.81, 6.04±6.14) and candidemia onset (25.61±6.52, 12.75±8.42) than the HIV-negative IC patients (APACHEII 15.09±5.82, 22.15±5.98) and SOFA 2.87±2.73, 7.66±5.64 respectively (P<0.05). In the NIC patients, twenty-one cases (21/30, 70.00%) died in hospital, while 14 cases (14/32, 43.75%) in HIV-negative IC. The crude mortality was significantly different between the two groups (P<0.05). By blood culture, Canidia albicans remained the the most prevalent isolates in all the patients. Clinical manifestation, Candida spp. colonization, etiology and drug susceptibility were also similar between NIC and HIV-negative IC patients (P>0.05). CONCLUSION Candidemia in NIC patients tends to occur in those who are much more critically ill, more often admitted in ICU, and more frequently have diabetes mellitus or uncontrolled hyperglycemia and receive invasive mechanical ventilation than HIV-negative IC patients. NIC patients also have poorer prognosis than HIV-negative IC patients. Clinical manifestations, and microbiological characteristics are similar between HIV-negative IC and NIC patients.
APACHE ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Candida ; Candidemia/therapy* ; Candidiasis/therapy* ; Female ; Humans ; Immunocompetence ; Intensive Care Units ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND: Fast identification of Candida glabrata is important, because empirical antifungal therapy for fungemia with C. glabrata and non-C. glabrata varies. We proposed an algorithm for rapid presumptive diagnosis to identify fungemia with C. glabrata using earlier or only growth from anaerobic bottles and longer time to positivity (TTP) in blood cultures. METHODS: Positivity and TTP using the BacT/Alert 3D system (bioMerieux Inc, USA) with resin bottles (FA Plus and FN Plus) were analyzed in 215 candidemia patients from June 2014 to June 2016 in a university-affiliated hospital in Korea. RESULTS: A higher proportion of earlier or only growth from anaerobic bottles was observed in C. glabrata (38.8%, 7/18) than in C. albicans (7.6%, 8/105), C. parapsilosis (10.5%, 4/138), and C. tropicalis (9.2%, 5/54) (P=0.006). The mean (±standard deviation) TTP for C. glabrata was 41.7 h (±16.3 h) compared with 26.7 h (±15.9 h) for C. albicans, 33.4 h (±8.4 h) for C. parapsilosis, and 23.1 h (±17.3 h) for C. tropicalis (P < 0.0001). We could predict fungemia with C. glabrata with a sensitivity of 94.4%, specificity of 63.9%, positive predictive value of 19.3%, and negative predictive value of 99.2% using a two-step algorithm: earlier or only growth from anaerobic bottles and TTP >31.4 h. CONCLUSION: This two-step algorithm in the BacT/Alert 3D system could be the basis for an initial empirical antifungal therapy for fungemia with C. glabrata prior to final identification.
Candida glabrata* ; Candida* ; Candidemia ; Diagnosis ; Fungemia* ; Humans ; Korea ; Sensitivity and Specificity

BACKGROUND: Candidemia has increased with an increasing number of people in the high risk group and so has become more important. This study was conducted to investigate the isolation rate of Candida species from candidemia patients and the change in rate of antifungal resistance. METHODS: At a single tertiary care hospital, 1,120 blood cultures positive for Candida species from 1997 to 2016 were investigated according to date of culture, gender, age, and hospital department. RESULTS: During the investigation period, the number of candidemia patients increased from 14 in 1997 to 84 in 2016. The most common organism identified during the two decades was Candida albicans (40.8%), followed by Candida parapsilosis (24.1%), Candida tropicalis (13.2%), and Candida glabrata (12.8%). C. glabrata was relatively common in females (45.5%) compared to males. The age group 40-89 years was more frequently infected than other age groups, and the most frequent isolates according to age group were C. albicans in neonate (66.7%), C. parapsilosis in 1-9-year-olds (41.7%), and C. glabrata in those aged ≥60 years (range; 13.3%–20.0%). According to the visited departments, C. albicans, C. glabrata, and Candida haemulonii were more common in medical departments, while C. parapsilosis was more common in surgical departments. In the antifungal susceptibility test, a rising trend of azole resistance among C. albicans and C. glabrata was observed in recent years. CONCLUSION: In this study, it was confirmed that the isolation rate of Candida species in blood is different by age, gender, and hospital department, and the distribution of isolated Candida species changed over time. The resistance patterns of antifungal agents are also changing, and continuous monitoring and proper selection of antifungal agents are necessary.
Antifungal Agents ; Candida albicans ; Candida glabrata ; Candida tropicalis ; Candida* ; Candidemia* ; Danazol ; Drug Resistance, Fungal* ; Female ; Hospital Departments ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Prevalence* ; Tertiary Healthcare*

BACKGROUND: Candida dubliniensis is phenotypically similar to Candida albicans that may be underdiagnosed in clinical laboratory. In 2010, C. dubliniensis was first recovered from blood of a candidemia patient in Seoul, Korea. Also, a simple commercial latex agglutination (LA) test is available. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of C. dubliniensis among isolates in our stocks during 2-years period (2010-2011) and to evaluate the ability of LA test (Bichro-Dubli Fumouze®) for the differentiation of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis. METHODS: A total 509 isolates including 504 C. albicans and 5 C. dubliniensis were examined for LA test, the presence of “spiking” on blood agar plate, and the germ tube test. Also all isolates were tested using the VITEK 2 ID-YST system. RESULTS: No C. dubliniensis was found in 504 isolates of initially identified as C. albicans. The LA test was positive only in 5 clinical isolates and 2 type strains of C. dubliniensis. CONCLUSIONS: The data show that the prevalence of C. dubliniensis in Korea is still expected to be extremely low and LA test is very rapid, simple, and reliable tool for the differentiation of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis.
Agar ; Agglutination ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Candidemia ; Humans ; Korea ; Latex Fixation Tests* ; Latex* ; Prevalence ; Seoul

Candida species cause various invasive fungal diseases, including candidemia, endocarditis, endophthalmitis, peritonitis, osteomyelitis and arthritis, but infected (mycotic) aortic aneurysms caused by Candida species are very rare. So, we report a case of infected thoracic aortic aneurysm concurrent with endophthalmitis by Candida albicans in a 42-year-old man. The patient initially was diagnosed with candidial endophthalmitis and hospitalized for vitrectomy. On admission, he had chest CT taken and infected thoracic aortic aneurysm was detected. He treated with antifungal agent and resection and patch repair of aortic aneurysm. Two months later, a new aneurysm on the patch repair site was detected and thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) was performed. After TEVAR and long-term antifungal therapy, his infected aortic aneurysm has been successfully treated.
Adult ; Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic* ; Arthritis ; Candida albicans* ; Candida* ; Candidemia ; Endocarditis ; Endophthalmitis* ; Humans ; Osteomyelitis ; Peritonitis ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Vitrectomy

Candidemia is increasing cause of mortality, especially in intensive care unit patients. And Candida endophthalmitis, developed with or without symptoms, has poor outcome. Prompt use of antifungal agents and early diagnosis of Candida endophthalmitis are clinically important to treat candidemia. In this study, we compared clinical, microbiological, ophthalmological characteristics and treatment outcomes whether infectious disease (ID) specialists mediate candidemia or not in a tertiary hospital by retrospective chart review. Group A includes patients who had candidemia at least one time from January 2012 to July 2013, without ID specialists mediation. Group B includes patients who had candidemia at least one time from August 2013 to December 2014, with ID specialists surveillances and mediations. We compared clinical manifestations of candidemia, uses of antifungal agent, ophthalmologic evaluations and treatment outcomes between two groups. In group A, rate of ophthalmologic evaluations was 4.4% and mean duration was 64.60 hours from blood culture to use of antifungal agents. In group B, the rate of ophthalmologic evaluations was 43.2% and mean duration was 50.15 hours. There was no statistically significant difference in clinical characteristics and 30-day mortality between two groups. Increasing rate of ophthalmologic evaluations and decreasing mean duration from blood culture to use of antifungal agents was shown in surveillance and mediation group.
Antifungal Agents* ; Candida ; Candidemia* ; Communicable Diseases ; Early Diagnosis ; Endophthalmitis ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Mortality ; Negotiating ; Retrospective Studies ; Specialization ; Tertiary Care Centers

No abstract available.
Candidemia* ; Saccharomycetales*