Microbiological Characteristics of Yeasts Isolated from Urinary Tracts of Intensive Care Unit Patients Undergoing Urinary Catheterization

We studied 70 intensive care unit patients to determine the incidence of nosocomial candiduria associated with indwelling urinary catheters and to assess microbiological characteristics of the yeasts. The yeasts were isolated, 13 of 17 in urine cultures and 4 of 17 in blood cultures, and colonization had occurred 3 days after the insertion of indwelling urinary catheters. For four strains the MICs of the antifungal drugs were high.

 Candida albicans to be the fourth most common pathogen in UTI (11).

Nosocomial fungal infections are important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU).

Urinary catheters have been held responsible as a cause of 80% of hospital urinary tract infections (UTI) (20). The surveillance data from the U.S. National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance system reported

 

Candida

spp. make up part of the human biota, and their qualitative isolation from urine cultures alone does not reveal evidence of infection (6). The concept of hospital candiduria would involve the development of UTI caused by Candida spp., with a culture of $105 CFU/ml on a specimen collected at least 72 h after hospital admission and a previous Candida spp.-negative culture (7, 16). Nevertheless, the Centers for Disease Control and  revention offered a clear definition of bacterial UTI, but the subject remains controversial as far as yeasts are concerned (4).