isolation, identification and susceptibility profile of rhodotorula species isolated from two educational hospitals in ahvaz

conclusions in conclusion we can state that rhodotorula have considerable distribution in critical wards and could be regarded as important invasive mycosis causative agents. in addition all tested antifungal agents, except fluconazole, are effective against rhodotorula species in vitro. materials and methods six hundred samples were collected from different areas of two educational hospitals of ahvaz. wet and sterile cotton swabs were drawn on the studied surfaces and inoculated on sabouraud agar plates containing chloramphenicol. all culture media were incubated at room temperatures for one week. during incubation times, all red-orange yeast colonies were selected and their morphology was confirmed by a microscopic examination. yeasts were identified by a commercial system id 32 c. in vitro susceptibility testing was performed by the disc diffusion method. background rhodotorula species are common airborne contaminant fungi and are also considered as normal inhabitants of the skin, lungs, urine and feces in humans. the most common species of rhodotorula include; rhodotorula. mucilaginosa, r. glutinis and r. minuta. rhodotorula species are considered as an important agent for invasive infection among immunocompromised patients. both amphotericin b and flucytosine were active against rhodotorula in vitro, whereas fluconazole was inactive. results in the present study 72 strains of rhodotorula were recovered from two educational hospitals of ahvaz. r. glutinis (86.1%) was the most common species among the isolates, followed by r. mucilaginosa (6.9%), r. minuta (4.2%) and rhodotorula species (2.8%). most of the isolated yeasts were recovered from cardiology, nephrology and urology wards. resistance to amphotericin b was found in 5.8% of isolates whereas 52.2% and 42.0% of isolates were dose dependent and sensitive to drugs, respectively. fluconazole exhibited no activity in vitro against all strains of rhodotorula. resistance to terbinafine was found in 37.7% of isolates, whereas only 26.1% of the tested isolates were sensitive and the rest were dose dependent. objectives in the present study rhodotorula species were isolated from two educational hospitals in ahvaz and their sensitivity profiles were evaluated against several antifungal agents including; amphotericin b, nystatin, miconazole, clotrimazole, fluconazole and terbinafine.