Identification and comparison of etiologic agents in vulvovaginal candidiasis and recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis by a differential medium

Vulvovaginal candidiasis is a fungal disease with itching, and thick white vaginal discharge. 70-75% of normal healthy adult women report having had at least one episode in their life Candida albicans is identified as the most common cause. The objective of this study was to identify the different candida species in the vaginal swabs of patients with vulvo-vaginitis.

175 vaginal swab specimens, from patients admitted in the Gynecology Department of Mahdieh Hospital with recurrent and non-recurrent vulvovaginitis, were cultured on SDA medium. The isolates were subcultured onto CHROM agar Candida medium and incubated at 37˚C for 48h.

In 89.7% of cases, single candida species and in 10.3%, multiple candida species were isolated. Frequency of different isolates was as follows: C. albicans (65.1%), C. glabrata (13.1%), C. tropicalis (6.2%), C. krusei (4%), C. guilliermondii (0.6%), C. parapsilosis (0.6%), C. glabrata and C. albicans (5.7%), C. albicans and C.parapsilosis (1.1%), C. glabrata and C. tropicalis (0.6%), C. krusei and C. tropicalis (0.6%), C. albicans and C. tropicalis (0.6%), C. krusei and C. albicans (0.6%), C. glabrata and C. krusei (0.6%), and C. glabrata and C. krusei and C. albicans (0.6%).

Our findings suggest that, the common cause of both recurrent and non-recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis was C. albicans, followed by C. glabrata.