Study of fungal isolates in patients with chronic diarrhea at a tertiary care hospital in north India.

Summary Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of isolation and antifungal susceptibility profile of various opportunistic yeasts in faeces of patients with chronic diarrhea. Patients The study included 120 patients who received the consultation and treatment for the complaints of chronic diarrhea for a period of more than 15 days. Materials and methods The microscopy of samples of stool was followed by the culture on Sabourauds-dextrose agar. Isolate were tried for their sensitivity to fluconazole, flucytosine, amphotericin B and voriconazole. Results The significant growth of fungal organism was seen in 32 (26.7%) stool specimen. These fungal isolates include five (15.6%) of C. albicans , 14 (43.8%) of C. tropicalis , five (15.6%) of C. krusei , two (6.3%) of C. famata , two (6.3%) of C. parapsilosis isolates and one isolate each of C. lusitaniae, C. guilliermondii, Stephanoascus ciferri and Trichosporon asahii (3.1% each). Most of the yeast isolates (65.6%) were found to be sensitive to all four antifungal agents i.e., fluconazole, flucytosine, amphotericin B and voriconazole. The highest resistance was seen against fluconazole in 10 (31.3%) isolates followed by flucytosine in eight (25%) isolates. No resistance to voriconazole was observed in any of the isolates. The resistance to the antifungal agents was higher among the other species of Candida compared to C. albicans . Conclusion The study could establish the relation between the opportunistic yeasts and chronic diarrhea and gives information on the antifungal sensitivity profile of the isolated yeasts.