Detection of Candida vulvovaginitis in Clinical Samples ; Using Direct Polymerase Chain Reaction Without DNA Extraction

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a common disease which infects women. The current study investigated the performance of direct sample polymerase chain reaction (DS-PCR) method to detect Candida spp. in clinical samples of vulvovaginitisto compare the results to those of standard microbiological laboratory methods. The current study aimed to further simplify the DNA extraction procedure, and shorten the time required for isolation and identification by using direct PCR to identify Candida vulvovaginitis without DNA extraction from samples or colonies. In the current study, totally 150 sexually active women participated. Vaginal discharge samples were collected using two sterile Dacron swabs that were immediately placed in two tubes each containing 1 mL of distilled water. One of the tubes was used for conventional culture methods whereas the other one was used for DS-PCR without DNA extraction. The number of yeast cells in each sample was counted. The results showed that out of the 150 samples, 55 were positive and 63 samples were negative by both methods, and 32 samples were positive using the culture method, but negative by DS-PCR. All positive DS-PCR samples had > 107 yeast or conidia cells/mL. The sensitivity and specificity of DS-PCR were calculated as 63.2% and 100%, respectively. Direct sample PCR has the potential to rapidly and accurately diagnose Candida vulvovaginitis in patients, especially if sufficient samples are obtained.