Objective: To investigate if introital and vaginal flushing samples inoculated on chromogenic agar could increase
the recovery rate and rapid identification of Candida and non-albicans species, as compared to culture of posterior
vaginal fornix samples on Sabouraud agar and speciation of isolates by biochemical tests.Methods: Samples from the introitus and the posterior vaginal fornix and vaginal lavage samples were collected
from 91 women with a history suggestive of recurrent vulvovaginal candidosis (RVVC), and with a suspected new
attack of the condition. The specimens were cultured on Sabouraud and CHROMagar®
. Speciation of yeast
isolates was made on the chromogenic agar by API 32C®kits and by an atomized system (Vitek®).Results: Forty-six (51%) women were positive for Candida fromone or more of the samples. The introital cultures
were positive in 43 (47%) women, both on Sabouraud and chromogenic agar. From the posterior vaginal fomix,
42 (46%) women were positive on the Sabouraud and 43 (47%) on chromogenic agar cultures, while the vaginal
lavage cultures yielded Candida on those two media in 40 (44%) and 4l (45%) cases, respectively. Candida albicans
was the most frequent species recovered, from 40 (87%) cases, followed by C. krusei in 4 (9%), C. glabrata in
2 (4%), and C. parapsilosis in one case. There was only onewoman who had a mixed yeast infection, by C. albicans
and C. krusei . There was only one discrepancy in the speciation as demonstrated by mean of chromogenic agar and
API 32C kit.Conclusions: Neither cultures of introital nor of vaginal lavage samples increases the detection rate of Candida in
RVVC cases as compared to cultures of posterior vaginal fornix samples. Use of chromogenic agar is a convenient
and reliable means to detect colonization by Candida and differentiate between C. albicans and non-albicans
species.