Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2008 Oct;46(10):3508-9.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.01113-08. Epub 2008 Aug 6.

Utility of the germ tube test for direct identification of Candida albicans from positive blood culture bottles

Donald C Sheppard  1 , Marie-Claude Locas, Christiane Restieri, Michel Laverdiere
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Utility of the germ tube test for direct identification of Candida albicans from positive blood culture bottles

Donald C Sheppard et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

We compared the germ tube test for the direct identification of Candida albicans from positive blood culture bottles, with results obtained from subcultured colonies. The direct germ tube test was 87.1% sensitive and 100% specific for the identification of C. albicans when the results obtained from fungal colonies were compared.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Forrest, G. N., K. Mankes, M. A. Jabra-Rizk, E. Weekes, J. K. Johnson, D. P. Lincalis, and R. A. Venezia. 2006. Peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization-based identification of Candida albicans and its impact on mortality and antifungal therapy costs. J. Clin. Microbiol. 443381-3383. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Garey, K. W., M. Rege, M. P. Pai, D. E. Mingo, K. J. Suda, R. S. Turpin, and D. T. Bearden. 2006. Time to initiation of fluconazole therapy impacts mortality in patients with candidemia: a multi-institutional study. Clin. Infect. Dis. 4325-31. - PubMed
    1. Harrington, A., K. McCourtney, D. Nowowiejski, and A. Limaye. 2007. Differentiation of Candida albicans from non-albicans yeast directly from blood cultures by Gram stain morphology. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 26325-329. - PubMed
    1. Kumar, A., D. Roberts, K. E. Wood, B. Light, J. E. Parrillo, S. Sharma, R. Suppes, D. Feinstein, S. Zanotti, L. Taiberg, D. Gurka, and M. Cheang. 2006. Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock. Crit. Care Med. 341589-1596. - PubMed
    1. Morrell, M., V. J. Fraser, and M. H. Kollef. 2005. Delaying the empiric treatment of Candida bloodstream infection until positive blood culture results are obtained: a potential risk factor for hospital mortality. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 493640-3645. - PMC - PubMed