FLUCONAZOLE RESPONSE PATTERNS IN HIV-INFECTED PATIENTS WITH OROPHARYNGEAL CANDIDIASIS

A prospective study to assess the efficacy of fluconazole in oropharyn geal candidiasis in patients with HIV was conducted. A cohort of 30 HI V-positive persons with clinical and microbiologic confirmed oropharyn geal candidiasis (Candida albicans >1000 CFU/ml) received fluconazole 100 mg daily for 7 days. In vitro antifungal susceptibility tests demo nstrated a lack of fluconazole resistances. Cultures of mouth swabs we re performed at the end of therapy and 2 weeks later. There was a clin ical and microbiologic cure in 26 patients (87%). In 10 of these 26, c ultures remained negative after 2 weeks; most of them had CD4 lymphocy te count >400/ml. In the other 16 patients (53%), cultures showed a mi crobiologic relapse 2 weeks after treatment. In spite of clinical impr ovement, treatment failure was observed in four patients, all of them with CD4 lymphocyte count <50 ml.