Clinical and experimental evaluation of a new chromogenic medium (OCCA®, Oxoid) for direct identification of Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and C. krusei

Summary Oxoid Chromogenic Candida Agar (OCCA®) is a new commercial ready-to-use medium that contains chromogenic substrates for rapid detection and specific identification of Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and C. krusei. We evaluated the performance of this medium with 364 clinical specimens and 31 subcultures, and examined its ability to support the growth of small inocula of six reference strains. CHROMagar Candida was used as the reference medium. OCCA permitted the growth of most important yeasts, and readily discriminated among Candida spp. in clinical specimens, including mixed cultures.