Medically important Candida spp. identification: an era beyond traditional methods.

BACKGROUND: Candida infections are gaining more attention for the last few decades so diagnostic tools are very important for early diagnosis. Conventional identification of yeasts is time-consuming, molecular methods are more complicated and relatively expensive gold-standard methods. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) was put into the market due to its speed and high accuracy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of corn meal tween-80 agar (CMTA), CHROMagar Candida medium, and MALDI-TOF MS and to compare the obtained results with DNA sequencing. METHODS: The CHROMagar Candida medium, CMTA, and MALDI-TOF MS Biotyper System were used to test 416 isolates. The isolates with discrepant results by at least one of the three methods were subjected to sequence analysis. RESULTS: The identification results of the 351 (%84.4) were compatible with all three methods. When compared to the sequencing results, the most accurate results were obtained by the MALDI-TOF MS, especially for rare Candida species. DISCUSSION: MALDI-TOF MS is found to be the most accurate identification tool for clinically important Candida strains. CMTA alone should not be used for the final identification of Candida species and the chromogenic medium should always be considered presumptive.

[A case with fever of unknown origin during treatment for malaria: multi-drug resistant Salmonella typhi infection]. / Sitma tedavisi alan bir olguda nedeni bilinmeyen ates: cok ilaca direncli Salmonella typhi enfeksiyonu.

Typhoid fever is an acute infectious disease caused by Salmonella serotype Typhi, leading to endemic or epidemic outbreaks in tropical/ subtropical countries (especially in India, Southeast Asia, Central and South Africa). In this report, a 27 years old male patient with malaria has been presented. The patient was diagnosed to have malaria while working in Afghanistan, and received malaria treatment since one month. He admitted to our hospital because of still continuing high fever, and other complaints (weight loss, night sweats, weakness, anorexia). His fever was 39.5 degrees C at admission, and blood smears were negative for Plasmodium sp. On the third day of admission, rose spots were detected on the skin of the abdomen and chest, and group agglutination tests gave positive results for S. Typhi O (titer: 1/800), and S. Typhi H (titer: 1/3200). Blood cultures revealed growth of Salmonella enterica serotip Typhi. The isolate was found to be resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracyclin and trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole, and sensitive to ciprofloxacin. The patient was treated successfully with ciprofloxacin for 14 days.