SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE, RELIABLE METHOD FOR DIFFERENTIATION OF CANDIDA-DUBLINIENSIS FROM CANDIDA-ALBICANS

Candida dubliniensis is a recently described pathogenic species which shares many phenotypic features with Candida albicans, including the a bility to form germ tubes and chlamydospores. These similarities have caused significant problems in the identification of C. dubliniensis b y the average clinical mycology laboratory. To facilitate the differen tiation of these species, we investigated the growth of 120 isolates o f C. dubliniensis and 98 C. albicans isolates at 42 and 45 degrees C o n Emmons' modified Sabouraud glucose agar (SGA) and 10 isolates of eac h species in yeast-peptone-dextrose broth. None of the C. dubliniensis isolates grew on the agar or in the broth medium at 45 degrees C, whi le 11 isolates were capable of growing on SGA at 42 degrees C. In cont rast, all of the C. albicans isolates but one grew at 45 degrees C on or in either medium. These reproducible results clearly demonstrate th at the incubation of isolates suspected to be C. dubliniensis or C. al bicans at 45 degrees C provides a simple, reliable, and inexpensive me thod for the differentiation of the two species.