The possibilities for using combined methods in typing Candida albicans for establishing epidemiological relationships

: An outbreak of candidiasis caused by C. albicans was registered in a neonatal intensive care unit of one of the hospital of St.-Petersburg at the period of August 12-October 8, 1992. C. albicans were isolated from 21 out of 87 patients. To achieve their more detailed deciphering and to establish epidemiological relationships, the intraspecific typing of C. albicans was carried out by DNA typing and by the electrophoretic spectrum of exoproduct proteins. The analysis of the results of this typing revealed that strains classified with the same biotype belonged to different electrophoretic groups and, vice versa, strains of the same electrophoretic group could belong to different biotypes. The analysis of the data obtained by taking into account the results of typing by the two methods, the time of the patients stay in the unit, the number of the maternity clinic from which an individual patient arrived, the number of the reanimation place and the number of the apparatus for artificial lung ventilation made it possible to establish epidemiological relationships between the patients in all cases.