Esophageal candidiasis in patients from a specialty hospital

Esophageal candidiasis (EC) is the most common cause of infectious esophagitis. So far, its main risk factor has been HIV infection; in recent years, EC has been favoured by the increasing of diabetes mellitus, wide-spread use of acid-lowering agents, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and inhaled steroids. In Mexico EC has been poorly studied.

To determine the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of EC, and to identify its etiological agents as well as its antifungal susceptibility.

Patients who revealed the presence of scattered white spots through an upper gastrointestinal system endoscopy, in a period of one year, in a tertiary care hospital, were included. Samples from patches were collected for microscopic examination, culture, and susceptibility tests.

Out of 1763 patients studied, 23 had scattered white spots, and most of them presented Kodsi grade I; 13 were men; half of the patients were between the ages 20 to 40; main comorbidity was liver cirrhosis; use of omeprazole was significant. 22 isolates were obtained from 17 patients. The most frequent species were C. albicans (14) and C. parapsilosis (3). In five cases we found a two-species association v. g. Candida famata with Trichosporon mucoides. Half of the isolates showed resistance to one or several antifungal drugs.

EC frequency in this study was similar to other studies’ results. Obtained isolates showed high resistance to azolic compounds and to caspofungin, which is relevant information to take a therapeutic decision.