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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, July 2001, p. 2129-2133, Vol. 45, No. 7
Infectious Diseases Service, Department of
Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Department of
Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell
University,1 and The Public Health
Research Institute,3 New York, and
Mycology Laboratory, Axelrod Institute, New York State
Department of Health, Albany,2 New York
Received 24 July 2000/Returned for modification 20 January
2001/Accepted 11 April 2001
Since most nosocomial systemic yeast infections arise from the
endogenous flora of the patient, we prospectively evaluated the species
stratification and antifungal susceptibility profile of
Candida spp. associated with heavy colonization and
systemic infection in patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center in New York. A total of 349 Candida isolates were
obtained from 223 patients during the later half of 1998. Cancer was
the most common underlying disease, occurring in 91% of the patients,
including 61.8% with organ and 23.7% with hematological malignancies;
4.4% of the patients had AIDS. Candida albicans was the
predominant species (67.3%); among 114 non-albicans
Candida spp., C. glabrata (45.6%) was the most
frequent, followed by C. tropicalis (18.4%), C. parapsilosis (16.6%), and C. krusei
(9.6%). The overall resistance to triazole-based agents among
all yeast isolates was 9.4 and 10.8% for fluconazole and
itraconazole, respectively. A total of 5% of C. albicans
strains were resistant to triazole antifungals, whereas 30.8 and 46.2%
of C. glabrata strains were resistant to fluconazole
(MIC
0066-4804/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.45.7.2129-2133.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Prospective Study of Candida Species in
Patients at a Comprehensive Cancer Center

64 µg/ml) and itraconazole (MIC
1 µg/ml), respectively. A significant association was observed between prior treatment with triazole and isolation of fluconazole-resistant C. albicans (P = 0.005, OR 36), although this
relationship was not seen in C. glabrata isolates
(P = 0.4). This study reinforces the importance
of periodic, prospective surveillance of clinical fungal isolates to
determine appropriate prophylactic, empiric, and preemptive antifungal
therapy for the highly susceptible patient population.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: The Public
Health Research Institute, 455 First Ave., New York, NY 10021. Phone:
(212) 578-0820. Fax: (212) 578-0804. E-mail:
perlin{at}phri.nyu.edu.
Present address: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of
Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia,
S.C.
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