NZ-led research finds quick candida test

Photo / Thinsktock

A diagnostic tool developed by a team led by Massey University researcher Jan Schmid could prevent about 60 New Zealand deaths a year from the fungal infection candidemia - and save thousands of lives worldwide.

Dr Schmid, a senior lecturer in microbiology, has discovered a strain of candida albicans, a yeast infection, twice as likely to lead to death in vulnerable patients such as the prematurely born.

"Candidemia is a disease that is time-consuming and difficult to diagnose," Dr Schmid said today.

"It affects patients, who are already quite sick, and by the time it is diagnosed through blood analysis it is often too late."

Researchers from Massey, Italy and Sweden discovered a candida genotype that was more virulent in young patients.

"We analysed a strain collection in Italy with mortality data from patients. What we found is that young patients with this particular genotype were twice as likely to die from candidemia."

From that, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay -a diagnostic tool that could identify the genotype - was developed.

"The assay can be utilised as a risk management tool for compromised patients who are susceptible to candidemia," Dr Schmid said.

"It can identify, in advance, patients who are more likely to die from the infection than other patients."

Those patients could then be treated with anti-fungal drugs.

Anti-fungal drugs were not very good for people, especially for patients who were already compromised. "Also their frequent use leads to drug-resistant strains, so using them prophylactically on all patients at risk from candidemia is not recommended."

With this test, clinicians could easily identify those patients who would most benefit from prophylactic anti-fungal treatment, he said.

The incidence of life-threatening blood-borne infections of immune-compromised patients with candida yeasts has increased 10-fold in New Zealand over the past 20 years.

"Candidemia is the most common fungal infection we see in our hospitals and our calculations suggest it may kill as many as 60 New Zealanders each year," Dr Schmid said.

Those infections might cost the health system as much as $18 million annually, he said.

The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

- NZPA