Oral Candida albicans in bone marrow transplant patients given chlorhexidine rinses: Occurrence and susceptibilities to the agent

Abstract

The tongue and buccal mucosa of 26 bone marrow transplant recipients given three 0.12% chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) oral rinses daily for 8 weeks were sampled weekly for oral Candida albicans. Putative C. albicans colony-forming units on selective bismuth sulfite glucose glycine yeast agar plates were identified with the API 20C system. The CHX minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of oral C. albicans isolates obtained at all 8 sample weeks was determined with a microbroth dilution sensitivity assay. The CHX MIC range for yeast isolates selected randomly at all sample weeks was up to 2.5 to up to 20 μg/ml (mean MIC ≤8.5 μg/ml). The CHX MIC range for isolates at week 1 was ≤5 to ≤ 10 μg/ml (mean MIC ≤7.9 μg/ml) compared with ≤2.5 to ≤20 μg/ml at week 8 (mean MIC ≤8.8 μg/ml). Therefore the persistence of oral C. albicans in bone marrow transplant recipients using CHX rinses was due neither to low CHX susceptibilities nor to the development of resistance to the agent.