Comparison of three commercial media for direct identification and discrimination of Candida species in clinical specimens.

One hundred and ninety-two clinical specimens were used to compare the three chromogenic media Albicans ID, Candiselect, and CHROMagar Candida to a standard method using a Sabouraud-chloramphenicol agar medium and standard methods for identification of yeasts. The detection rates were 83.79, 83.24, 86.59 and 84.91% respectively. For the chromogenic media, the rates of direct identification (growth plus specific pigmentation) for Candida albicans were 56.50, 37.68 and 11.59% after 24 hours' incubation and 92.75, 91.30 and 88.57% after 72 hours' incubation respectively, with 100% specificity. Furthermore, CHROMagar Candida identified the five Candida tropicalis and the two Candida krusei strains detected after 48 hours' incubation.