Diagnosis of Candida Species Isolated from Patients with Vaginal Candidiasis and Healthy Individuals Based on Clinical Symptoms and Paraclinical Evidences

Vaginal candidiasis is the second cause of vaginal infections and almost 75% of healthy females get infected by these yeasts at least once during their reproductive age. The present study aimed to isolate and identify Candida species from the patients with vaginal candidiasis and healthy individuals. The study was cross-sectional and conducted on patients with suspected vaginal candidiasis referred to the private clinics of Shiraz, Iran and healthy individuals. Following the clinical examination, samples were taken from the vaginal discharges for culturing, gram staining, and determining the pH. Afterwards, the species were differentiated by CHROMagar Candida medium and the formation of chlamydospore. In the present study, the culture of the specimens of 42 patients (35%) yielded positive results. Vaginal discharge was the most prevalent clinical symptom of candida vaginitis with a rate of 78.6% followed by itching (57.1%), burning sensation (47.6%), and lower abdominal pain (45.2%). The most frequently identified species was Candida albicans (57.1%), followed by Candida parapsilosis (14.3%), Candida glabrata (11.9%), and Candida krusei (9.5%). Mixed colonization with two yeast species was observed in 7.1% (n=3) of the cases. Of the 21 healthy controls, the culture of the vaginal swabs yielded yeast colonies identified to be Candida albicans in 5 individuals (23.8%). Since only one third of the suspected patients were diagnosed as vaginal candidiasis through laboratory tests and also due to the lack of specificity of the symptoms, performing laboratory tests for definite diagnosis of this infection is recommended.