Chronic urinary tract infection due to Candida utilis

An elderly male was seen at an outpatient urology clinic over a period of 3 years with repeat urine specimens containing 10(4) to 10(5) CFU of a "Cand ida species, not C. albicans," The urine specimens were described as infect ed due to the presence of pyuria, but no antifungal therapy was administere d, On two occasions, the patient presented to the emergency room and urine specimens were sent to the clinical microbiology laboratory, On both occasi ons, a yeast was isolated at concentrations of > 10(5) CFU/ml. The organism was identified as the anamorphic yeast Candida utilis (teleomorph: Pichia jadinii) by conventional methods, Molecular methods, including karyotyping and restriction enzyme analysis, confirmed that the isolates Here identical and were C. utilis. The patient developed benign prostatic hypertrophy and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease during the 3-year course. This repor t is the first demonstration of the isolation of the industrially important yeast C. utilis from a urinary tract infection. In the present case, the o rganism was associated with chronic, symptomatic disease. The significance of this unusual, low-virulence isolate from a case of urinary tract infecti on is discussed.