Factors associated with the presence of Candida spp. in the oral and tracheobronchial secretions of patients admitted to an adult intensive care unit

Abstract

objective: to verify factors associated with the presence of Candida spp. in oral and tracheobronchial secretions of 135 patients admitted to an adult ICU, general of the Santa Casa de Caridade, of Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Oral samples showed significant differences between colonized and non-colonized patients in the variables age (p < 0.01), people with two or more comorbidities (p < 0.04), hypertensive patients (p < 0.01) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) (p < 0.01). In multivariate logistic regression, we verified that age (p = 0.02, OR = 1.03), Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) (p = 0.01, OR = 2.89) and CHF (p = 0.05, OR = 2.49) are associated with the presence of Candida spp. in oral samples. Removing the age variable, comorbid hypertension (p = 0.04, OR = 2.18) and CHF (p = 0.04, OR = 2.64) increase the chance of having Candida spp. twice in the oral sample. The results showed that CHF, SAH and increasing age are factors associated with Candida spp. in the oral cavity of ICU patients.