USE OF MUELLER-HINTON BROTH AND AGAR IN THE GERM TUBE TEST

Autor: Antonella Souza Mattei, Sydney Hartz Alves, Cecília Bittencourt Severo, Luciana da Silva Guazzelli, Flávio de Mattos Oliveira, Luiz Carlos Severo
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo, Vol 56, Iss 6, Pp 483-485 (2014)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1678-9946
0036-4665
DOI: 10.1590/S0036-46652014000600005
Popis: Candida albicans is often isolated from clinical samples, thus its presumptive differentiation from other species of the same genus can be based on its ability to form the germ tube in human serum. Nevertheless, there are two other species that share this characteristic: C. dubliniensis and C. africana. The aim of this study was to compare four different substrates to perform the germ tube (GT) test. The Candida spp. isolates were identified using a manual system (135 C. albicans, 24 C. tropicalis and one C. dubliniensis). The germ tube test was performed with fresh, previously frozen serum and Mueller-Hinton (MH) broth and agar. GT was observed in 96% (130/136) of the isolates through the fresh serum technique, 94% (128/136) through previously frozen serum, 92% (125/136) in MH agar, and 90% (122/136) in MH broth. The sensitivity of each test was higher than 90%, with 100% specificity. Both the MH agar and broth were able to identify the true positives, and false positives were not found. However, some C. albicans isolates were not identified. MH agar and broth may be used in laboratory for the rapid presumptive identification of C. albicans, as an alternative method for germ tube test.
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