The Sensitivity and Resistance of Yeasts Isolated from Women with Vulvovaginal Candidiasis to Common Antifungal drugs Using Disc Diffusion

Background and Due to the ever-increasing use of antifungal drugs especially those of azole group, the prevalence of recurrent forms of vaginal infections and the number of drug-resistant yeasts are on the rise. Therefore, the rpesent study is conducted to investigate the sensitivity and resistance of yeasts isolated from vaginal infections to antifungal drugs. Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional descriptive analytical study was conducted on 118 yeasts isolated from 436 suspects of vulvovaginal candidiasis; their sensitivity and resisitance to drugs belonging to imidazoles group including clotrimazole (CTR), fluconazole (FCA), ketoconazole (KET), miconazole (MCZ) and econazole (EC) as well as nystatine (NY) belonging to polyene group using the standard disc diffusion technique. To determine their relationship clinical symptoms and the raltion of resistance to one drug with resistance to other drugs, relevant tests were used including chi-square, kappa and linear regression coefficient in SPSS 11. The results showed no resistance to nystatine from polyene group and econazole from azole group; however, 53 cases (%44.9) were resistant to fluconazole, 26 cases (%22) to miconazole, 10 cases (%8.5) to clotrimazole and 2 cases (%1.7) to ketoconazole. The results of linear correlation showed a negative correlation between the sensitivity of yeasts to CTR and KET and clinical symptoms (P