Oral Candidal and Streptococcal carriage in Down syndrome patients

We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of Candida and Streptococci species in the oral cavity of Down syndrome patients.

50 children/adolescents with Down syndrome with a karyotype of 47 XX, 21+ (female) and 47 XY, 21+ (male), and 50 normal children/adolescents were included in our study. Oral swab/saliva was used to culture and identify Candida and Streptococci species based on gram and periodic acid schiff staining.

Of the 50 study group samples, which were cultured, 37 (74%) showed growth of Candida colonies, whereas in the 50 control samples only 18 (36%) were positive for Candida growth. In 4 Sabouraud's dextrose agar culture slopes of the study group, more than one morphological type of colonies were observed. 23 out of 50 samples in our study group had Streptococcus viridans colonies. In the 23 samples positive for Streptococci 16 had many streptococcal colonies, and 7 had few streptococcal colonies in the primary culture. 32 out of 50 samples from the control group had S. viridans colonies. In these 32 samples positive for Streptococci, 29 had predominantly streptococcal colonies while 3 had few streptococcal colonies in the primary culture.

The oral cavity is an environment heavily colonized by microorganisms, however, the Down syndrome patients run a greater risk of having opportunistic infections especially from Candida species. Hence to improve the quality of life of an individual with Down syndrome, it is necessary to diagnose and treat these infections by more frequent oral microbial assessment.