Abstract: Objective To investigate an eight-year resistance change of clinically isolated Candida albicans strains in intensive care unit (ICU) in our hospital and to provide a reference for clinical diagnosis and treatment.Methods Four hundred and fourteen Candida albicans strains were isolated from 414 cases in ICU during 2002-2009. Among those isolates, 277 strains were performed sensitivity tests. Cox-Stuart trend test was used to analyze the change of Candida albicans proportion in whole isolated fungi and their resistance to commonly used antifungal angents.Results The Candida albicans isolates increased from 34 in 2002 to 92 in 2009, while their proportions in whole isolated fungi ranged from 34.6% to 55.7% (P=0.03). Average resistance rates of Candida albicans to antifungal angents were 5-fluorocytosine 4.0%, amphotericin B 0.7%, miconazole 47.0%, ketoconazole 10.8%, itraconazole 19.9%, terbinafine 42.6%, fluorocytosine 14.6% and voriconazole 13.0%, respectively. No significant changes of Candida albicans resistance to 5-fluorocytosine, amphotericin B and itraconazole in 8 years were detected (P=0.06,P=0.06,P=0.31 respectively).Conclusions The recent eight-year data shows Candida albicans still remains to be the commonest clinical fungal isolate in ICU in Changzheng Hospital,though its proportion in whole fungal isolates being in trend of decrease, and its resistant rate to commonly used antifungal agents having not changed significantly.

Key words: intensive care unit, Candida albicans, drug resistance, trend analysis