Serotyping of Cryptococcus neoformans strains isolated from clinical specimens in Thailand and their susceptibility to various antifungal agents

One hundred and thirty-nine strains of Cryptococcus neoformans were isolated in Thailand from clinical specimens including 97 AIDS patients: 67 from Northern, 48 from Central, 17 from Northeastern and 7 from Southern regional hospitals. Six out of the 139 strains were serotype B and the remaining 133 were A. There was no correlation between serotypes and regional distribution. To our knowledge, this is the first report of serotyping studies on C. neoformans in Thailand. Studies on random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis showed that this method is useful for the differentiation of C. neoformans var. gattii (serotypes B and C) and C. neoformans var. neoformans (serotypes A and D). They also indicated that Thai isolates of C. neoformans var. gattii (serotype B) were a homogeneous group on the basis of their genotypes. Antifungal susceptibility tests using 5 antifungal agents including amphotericin B, fluconazole, flucytosine, itraconazole and micronazole against 50 selected strains of C. neoformans showed that they were sensitive to all of the antifungal agents tested except for one strain that was resistant to flucytosine.