The Frequency of Oral Candidiasis in Children and Adolescents with Leukemia in Isfahan Province, Iran

Oral candidiasis is one of the most important and common opportunistic fungal infections especially in patients with leukemia, and other kind of cancers. This study aimed to isolate and determine the frequency of common species of Candida in children and adolescents with leukemia in Isfahan province, Iran, in order to provide some ways for prevention and using short-term treatment for them.
In this study, 72 oral samples were obtained from the mouth lesions of the children and adolescents with leukemia hospitalized in Seyed al Shohada hospital in Isfahan city. Two wet sterile swabs were used for sampling, one for direct exam and the second for culturing on CHROMagar candida, and Sabouraud Dextrose agar with chloramphenicol. For more accurate determination of the species, molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) using Msp1 enzyme were done.
Findings: Out of 72 patients with oral lesions, 21 patients (29.2%) had oral candidiasis The frequency of candida species were as 17 cases of Candida albicans (81.0%), 2 cases of Candida glabrata (9.5%), and 1 case of Candida krusei (4.8%) and 1 case of Candida kefyr (4.8%).
This study showed that Candida albicans is the most common identified species. Considering that chemotherapy makes the patients susceptible to fungal infections such as candidiasis, early detection of these agents can be useful to control the infection and have a short-term treatment process.