EVALUATION OF 2 COMMERCIALIZED SYSTEMS FOR THE RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF MEDICALLY IMPORTANT YEASTS

A total of 77 recent clinical isolates of Candida albicans and other medically important yeasts were identified by two different commercial tests, Rapidec albicans (API-bioMerieux) and Fongiscreen 4H (Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur), and conventional mycological methods. The strains were from 13 different species of yeasts and consisted of strains of 36 C. albicans, three of Candida famata, nine of Candida (Torulopsis) glabrata, five of Candida guilliermondii, two of Candida kefyr, three of Candida krusei, one of Candida lusitaniae, four of Cryptococcus neoformans, five of Candida parapsilosis, six of Candida tropicalis, one of Candida viswanathii, one of Rhodotorula rubra and one of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. According to the reactivity profiles of the isolates, identification was always correct with Fongiscreen 4H and was correct in 97.3% of the strains with Rapidec albicans. The latter test did not identify two C. albicans isolates that were correctly identified by Fongiscreen 4H. Both methods (97.3% correlation) were very useful for identification of C. albicans achieving the aim of their manufacturers. Additionally, Fongiscreen 4H was very useful for the identification of three other species of yeasts: C. glabrata, C. tropicalis and Cr. neoformans. The results of our study indicate that the accuracy of Rapidec albicans and Fongiscreen 4H is similar to that of the conventional methods used in this study for the identification of C. albicans. The same is true of Fongiscreen 4H in the identification of C. glabrata, C. tropicalis and Cr. neoformans. Both tests could be rapid and easy-to-perform tools in the clinical microbiology laboratory, but differences in cost must be taken into account.