Background: A growing incidence of invasive fungal infections, especially among immunocompromised patients, has given increased significance to microbiological diagnostics of yeast-like fungi. More accurate and faster fungi identification methods that can compete with classical methods are being searched for. In this paper, classical microbiological methods are compared to MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry).
Methods: The diagnostic material was collected from buccal mucosa from 98 adults, including 69 with HIV. Only positive cultures were included in the study.
Results: Matching results were obtained in 45 samples, and there were nonmatching results in 35 samples, with the majority of these in the study group, constituting 50% of identifications within this group. A particularly common mistake resulting from the use of classical methods is the false identification of C. dubliniensis as C. albicans. Additionally, C. tropicalis proves to be difficult to identify.
Conclusions: Our results and literature data suggest that MALDI-TOF MS should be considered an effective alternative to classical methods in terms of fungi identification, especially among HIV-positive patients, due to the different morphology of fungal colonies.
Keywords: Candida; HIV; MALDI–TOF MS; oral cavity fungal flora.