Identification of Candida cultured from various clinical specimens to the species level is increasingly
necessary for clinical laboratories. Although sn PCR identifies the species within hours but its
cost-effectiveness is to be considered. So there is always a need for media which help in the isolation
and identification at the species level. The study aimed to evaluate the performance of different
chromogenic media and to compare the effectiveness of the traditional phenotypic methods vs.
seminested polymerase chain reaction (sn PCR) for identification of Candida species. One hundred
and twenty seven Candida strains isolated from various clinical specimens were identified by conventional
methods, four different chromogenic media and sn PCR. HiCrome Candida Differential
and CHROMagar Candida media showed comparably high sensitivities and specificities in the identification
of C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. glabrata and C. krusei. CHROMagar Candida had an extra
advantage of identifying all C. parapsilosis isolates. CHROMagar-Pal’s medium identified C.
albicans, C. tropicalis and C. krusei with high sensitivities and specificities, but couldn’t identify C.
glabrata or C. parapsilosis. It was the only medium that identified C. dubliniensis with a sensitivity
and specificity of 100%. Biggy agar showed the least sensitivities and specificities. The overall concordance
of the snPCR compared to the conventional tests including CHROMAgar Candida in the
identification of Candida species was 97.5%. The use of CHROMAgar Candida medium is an easy
and accurate method for presumptive identification of the most commonly encountered Candida spp.