This study aimed to investigate the risk factors for and the outcomes of patients with candidemia caused by non-albicans Candida. Candidemia patients treated at Siriraj Hospital (Bangkok, Thailand) during January 2016 to December 2017 were enrolled. A total of 156 patients (mean age: 65 years, 56.4% male) were included. The most prevalent underlying conditions were diabetes (32.1%), chronic cardiac disease (28.2%), chronic kidney disease (26.9%), and hematologic malignancies (21.2%). Candida species isolated from patient blood were C. tropicalis (49.4%), C. albicans (28.8%), C. glabrata (16.7%), and C. parapsilosis (5.1%). Fluconazole resistance was significantly increased in C. tropicalis (37.8%). No independent risk factors were associated with patients with non-albicans Candida candidemia compared to those with C. albicans candidemia. There was no significant difference in mortality between patients with non-albicans Candida candidemia and patients with C. albicans candidemia (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 0.64–2.85). When compared with C. albicans candidemia, multivariate analysis revealed chronic liver disease (OR: 11.39, 95% CI: 1.38–94.02), neutropenia (OR: 4.31, 95% CI: 1.34–13.87), and male gender (OR: 2.34, 95% CI: 1.04–5.29) to be independent risk factors for C. tropicalis candidemia. The observed high resistance of C. tropicalis to fluconazole indicates that fluconazole should not be used for empirical antifungal treatment in these patients.

Disk diffusion (DD) is a simple antifungal susceptibility method for Candida. This study examined the impact of fluconazole DD testing on antifungal de-escalation. We enrolled patients with candidemia whose Candida isolates were tested for fluconazole susceptibility using DD between January 2019 and January 2020. The historical controls were patients with candidemia who underwent fluconazole susceptibility testing using the broth microdilution (BMD) method. Clinical data including antifungal therapy were analyzed. In total, 108 patients were enrolled. Most baseline characteristics were comparable between the groups. C. tropicalis was the predominant isolate (54.6%), followed by C. albicans (17.6%). The rates of antifungal de-escalation within 72 h were 25.9 and 9.3% in the DD and BMD groups, respectively (p = 0.023). The median time to de-escalation was 3 days in the DD group, versus 6 days in the BMD group (p = 0.037). The 14-day mortality rate and antifungal cost tended to be lower in the DD group. There were no differences in the length of hospital stay and treatment-related complications between the two groups. The agreement between the DD and BMD results was 90%. DD testing can be substituted for BMD to enhance antifungal de-escalation and antifungal stewardship.