Identification of Pathogenic Fungi in Renal Transplant Patients by Conventional and Molecular Methods

Abstract

Opportunistic fungal infections due to the immune- compromised status of renal transplant patients are related to high rates of morbidity and mortality regardless of their minor incidence. Delayed in identification of invasive fungal infections (IFIs), will lead to delayed treatment and results in high mortality in those populations. The study aimed to assess the frequency of invasive fungal infection in kidney transplant recipients by conventional and molecular methods. This study included 100 kidney transplant recipients (KTR) (75 males, and 25 females), collected from the Centre of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation in the Medical City of Baghdad. Blood samples were collected during the period from June 2018 to April 2019. Twenty one out of 100 renal-transplanted patients were infected with pathogenic fungi, four of the patients were females and 17 were males. There is an observation of a high incidence of fungemia in patients with the abnormal value of blood urea according to PCR and culture results. Referring to fungal isolates the most prevalent was Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which account for 19 isolates out of 21 the other two isolates were Zygosaccharomyces rouxii and Aspergillus flavus. The results of the current study show significant correlation between PCR and culture methods at (P<0.0009).