Journal of Islamic International Medical College (Jun 2018)
Comparative Evaluation of CHROMagar and API 20C AUX in Isolation and Identification of Candida Species
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the performance of CHROMagar and API 20C AUX for the documentation of different Candida species. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology at AFIP (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology), CMH Rawalpindi and Army Medical College Rawalpindi in collaboration with Departments of Pathology (Microbiology) at Pakistan Railways Teaching Hospital (PRH), Islamic International edical College Rawalpindi from 01 April 2017 to 30 September 2017. Materials and Methods: Collectively 100 isolates of candida yielded from HVS clinical samples. Phenotypic tests including growth on CHROMagar Candida and API 20C AUX were used for reporting different Candida species. Clinical Candida isolates along with reference institutional control strains of Candida species were used in the study. Data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages) for each categorical variable. Results: Among 100 candida isolates 92 (92%) isolates of Candida were identified correctly to level of species by CHROMagar Candida, in comparison to 100% identification of candida species using API 20C AUX. Results of present study revealed that CHROMagar Candida can be used to report three species of Candida considering the morphology and colour of colonies of these particular species, and to distinguish them as C. albicans, C.tropicalis, and C. glabrata. Conclusion: Both phenotypic tests CHROMagar plates and API 20 C AUX are effective in the documentation of Candida species. However API 20 C Aux is found to be more accurate than CHROMagar because less commonly isolated Candida species cannot be documented using CHROMagar. Moreover being less costly; use of CHROMagar Candida is helpful in rapid identification and constructing suitable therapeutic plan for patient's management in laboratories with limited resources.
