Differences in the accuracy of potato dextrose agar and CHROMagar media in diagnosing oral candidiasis

For the diagnosis of oral candidiasis, the most commonly used method is culturing the Candida strains acquired by rubbing the mucous membrane in the mouth using a sterile cotton swab on the medium. This study was conducted to compare the accuracy of Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and chromogenic CHROMagar media in diagnosing oral candidiasis. This study included patients diagnosed with oral candidiasis who visited Chosun University Dental Hospital between January 1, 2018 and February 28, 2019. All study subjects were tested using the culture method to diagnose oral candidiasis. For statistical analysis of this study, IBM SPSS version 25.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA) was used. Cross analysis was used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of PDA and CHROMagar media as well as treatment effects and diagnoses using each medium. When diagnosed using PDA medium, the sensitivity was high at 91.3% but the specificity was relatively low at 46.0%. It was observed that the accuracy of the diagnosis method using PDA medium was relatively lower than that of the diagnosis method using CHROMagar medium. But the treatment effects in groups diagnosed with PDA medium were higher than those diagnosed with CHROMaga medium. According to the results of our study, CHROMagar medium is recommended for the diagnosis of oral candidiasis; as an alternative, a nonselective medium, such as PDA medium, can be used for the diagnosis of oral candidiasis.