HOSPITAL SPECIFICITY, REGION SPECIFICITY, AND FLUCONAZOLE RESISTANCE OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS BLOOD-STREAM ISOLATES

In a survey of bloodstream infection (BSI) isolates across the contine ntal United States, 162 Candida albicans isolates were fingerprinted w ith the species-specific probe Ca3 and the patterns were analyzed for relatedness with a computer-assisted system. The results demonstrate t hat particular BSI strains are more highly concentrated in particular geographic locales and that established BSI strains are endemic in som e, but not all, hospitals in the study and undergo microevolution in h ospital settings. The results, however, indicate no close genetic rela tionship among fluconazole-resistant BSI isolates in the collection, e ither from the same geographic locale or the same hospital. This study represents the first of three fingerprinting studies designed to anal yze the origin, genetic relatedness, and drug resistance of Candida is olates responsible for BSI.