Distribution of Yeast Isolates from Invasive Infections and Their In Vitro Susceptibility to Antifungal Agents: Evidence from 299 Cases in a 3-Year (2010 to 2012) Surveillance Study

Invasive yeast infections cause significant morbidity and mortality. Surveillance for the infection is necessary to detect trends in species distribution and antifungal resistance. We performed this retrospective study of yeast infection at Jinling Hospital, Nanjing in China, from year of 2010 to 2012. A total of 341 yeast isolates were obtained from patients with invasive infections in the period. Among these isolates, Candida spp. comprised of the highest percentage of yeast strains (91.8 %), followed by Cryptococcus neoformans (5.9 %) and other non- Candida yeast strains (2.3 %). Bloodstream isolates made up 41.3 % of yeast strains and the isolates from CVC made up 17.3 %. Among Candida spp., C. albicans was the most common species identified from non-blood clinical specimens (42.9 %), but appeared in only 20.8 % of blood isolates ( P < 0.001). C. tropicalis was the most prevalent Candida species in the blood samples (28.5 %). Candida spp. was mainly isolated from specimens of the ICU patients, while C. neoformans was mainly isolated from specimens in medical wards. Resistance to FLC occurred in 3.7 % of C. albicans , 9.9 % of C. tropicalis , 74.0 % of C. glabrata, and 4.4 % of C. parapsilosis . Most (>92 %) isolates of C. albicans , C. tropicalis , C. parapsilosis, and C. neoformans strains were susceptible to VRC; However, 26.7 % of isolates of C. glabrata were VRC resistant.