Isolation of Candida in the blood cultures of patients admitted to the Emergency Room in a tertiary care hospital.

BACKGROUND: In Spain, data of candidemia are limited to surveys conducted in specific areas or tertiary care centers. Also, in recent years, attention has shifted toward episodes of candidemia in non-ICU wards.

AIMS: We reviewed the cases of Candida isolates recovered from the blood of patients admitted to the Emergency Room (ER) in our tertiary care hospital.

METHODS: The patients selected for this study had an isolation of Candida in the blood culture. All data were collected retrospectively from the clinical records of a 11-year period.

RESULTS: Candida albicans and other species of the genus were present in 10 and 18 patients, respectively. The patients did not present different clinical features in comparison with other reports of hospitalized patients. All patients had several risk factors for candidemia. Only two patients had received previous antifungal therapy before admission. All the isolates of C. albicans, Candida glabrata and the only isolate of Candida tropicalis were susceptible to all the antifungal agents tested. Only one isolate of Candida parapsilosis was susceptible dose-dependent to fluconazole, and the only isolate of Candida metapsilosis was resistant to fluconazole.

CONCLUSIONS: It is essential to evaluate the risk factors, underlying conditions and clinical features in non-hospitalized patients in order to determine whether an empirical treatment for candidemia is appropriate.