Molecular Identification of Candida spp. Recovered from Endotracheal Tube Biofilms in Intensive Care Unit Patients

As an important health care problem, nosocomial infections are associated with high mortality rate and increasing hospital costs. The pathogenic organisms of these infections usually transmit to patients via hospital personnel and medical devices. Among them, Candida species are the most common fungi isolated from biofilms. Particularly, the biofilms formed by these organisms are identified in immunocompromised patients. The aim of this study was the molecular identification of isolated Candida spp. from endotracheal tubes of ICU patients.Ninety five intubated and mechanically ventilated ICU patients were evaluated for the presence of endotracheal tube biofilms. The endotracheal tubes were cultured on Sabouraud Dextrose agar. Using PCR-EFLP method, the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region was amplified and digested by the restriction enzyme MspI.By the evaluation of 51 isolates which were derived from all samples, C. albicans was the most frequently isolated species 20 (39.2%), followed by non albicans spp. of C. glabrata 14 (27.4%), C. tropicalis 8 (15.6%), C. krusei 6 (11.7%), and C. parapsilosis 3 (5.8%).The results show that Candida albicans was the most frequent species isolated from endotracheal tubes. Knowledge about the species identification of Candida biofilms can be helpful for clinicians to manage intensive care unit patients.