the relationship between risk factors in hiv+ patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis and their oral microflora

This study has the purpose of determining the prevalence of oral microflora and association of oral candidiasis and several risk factors in hiv+ patients. patients and methods: 100 hiv-infected patients have participated in this study in imam khomeini hospital, tehran, iran to be tested for hiv and oropharyngeal candidiasis. we assessed the presence or absence of opc through direct microscopic examination, gram staining and culture on standard microbiological media in the samples that were obtained from the oral cavities of all patients. we also calculated cd4+ cell count and cd4+ percentage. demographics showed that patients were 78% male and 22% female with the mean age of 32.3 years. o+ blood type makes patients 27% more prone to opc. from 460 bacterial colonies that were obtained, streptococcus mutans, in hiv+ patients, was the most frequently isolated species (15.4%). the next species that were isolated were staphylococcus epidermis (12.8%) and corynebacterium (8.7%). 254 yeasts (from four different genera) were isolated from patients. from most obtained to least obtained these are the genera that were isolated in this study: candida species (94.4%), saccharomyces (2.4%), kluyveromyces and cryptococcus (1.6% for both) species. the most common species isolated from hiv+ patients with opc was candida albicans (37.2%) among all candida species with significance(p<0.05). candida glabrata, c.dubliniensis, c.tropicalis, c.parapsilosis, c.krusei, c.lusitaniae, c.guilliermondii and c.norvegensis were also identified. the most clinical variant was angular cheilitis as 40% of the patients had this sign. the range of cd4+ cell counts were 8 to 611 cells/μl and the mean cd4+ cell counts were 154.5 cells/μl. thirty percent of the patients had cd4+ cell count between 101and 200 cells/μl (28.7 of total yeast isolated) among hiv+ subgroups with different levels of cd4+ cell counts, yeast and bacteria counts were not different. the test resulted in that yeast and genus candida isolated from oral cavity of hiv+ patients with a comparable rate and the difference between the variables cd4+ cell count and yeast count was not significant.