CHROMagar™ Candida

Performance

Perhaps as a result of progress in medical therapy with a related decrease in patient resistance and increase in the number of susceptible hosts, the incidence of bloodstream Candida infections rose through the 1990s but has stabilised in recent years. More commonly, Candida species are involved in superficial oropharyngeal and urogenital infections particularly for immuno-depressed people such as the elderly and AIDS victims. “Early diagnosis is essential for early effective management of the patients.” (WHO Guidelines on Standard Operating Procedures for Laboratory Diagnosis of HIV-Opportunistic Infections). Although C. albicans remains the major species involved, other types such as C. tropicalis,

C. krusei or C. glabrata have increased proportionately as new antifungal agents have worked very effectively against C. albicans. This shows the importance of an accurate detection for a proper antifungal therapy choice.

Intended Use :

CHROMagar™ Candida is a selective chromogenic culture medium intended for use in the qualitative direct detection, differentiation and presumptive identification of Candida species. The test is performed with swabs from skin, throat, ears and vaginal specimens as well as sputum, urine and stools samples, in parallel to cultures on Sabouraud agar, to aid in the Candidiasis diagnosis. Results can be interpreted after 20-48 h of aerobic incubation at 35-37 °C.

Further microbiological testing or epidemiological typing are needed. A lack of growth or the absence of colonies on CHROMagar™ Candida does not preclude the presence of Candida. CHROMagar™ Candida is not intended to diagnose infection nor to guide nor monitor treatment for infections.

1. High contrast: Intense colony colouration helping to differentiate species and mixed cultures.

4. Powerful tool: 

2. Fast: 20 -48 h incubation.

5. Less workload: With traditional media such as Sabouraud agar, identification of mixed cultures is difficult, whereas CHROMagar™ Candida, just by the colour of the colony, will instantly differentiate various Candida species and help locating their colonies in mixed colonies.

3. Panoramic view: Panoramic view of the Candida population mix with the ability to detect major species but also the presence of minor populations.