Strain specificity of yeasts isolated from different locations of women suffering from vaginal candidosis, and their partners

Sexual partners often harbour identical yeast strains in the vagina, in the orointestinal tract and in semen in cases of recurrent vulvovaginal candid oses. Specimen were collected from vagina, oral cavity and faeces of the pa tients, and from semen, oral cavity and faeces of their male partners. Myco logical cultures were grown on Sabouraud glucose-agar and, if positive, spe cified by Candida-ID-Agar (BioMerieux), by formation of chlamydospores on r ice agar, and by biochemotyping with the System Walk-away (Dade) or the API -32C system (Bio-Merieux). A polymerase chain reaction fingerprinting techn ique with the T3B oligonucleotide as single primer was used for strain typi ng. Candida albicans was isolated from the vagina of 18 out of 21 patients, the vagina of one patient harboured a strain of Candida glabrata. The cult ures obtained from vagina, oral cavity and faeces were genetically identica l in 12 patients. From the partners of 15 patients C, albicans was cultured in at least one of the clinical samples. Identical strains were observed f or eight of 15 couples, whereas four of these identical strains were cultur ed from semen. Further prospective investigations will prove whether a cons equent treatment of both partners will eradicate identical yeast strains an d will be able to improve the results of treatment in such women.