Introduction
Due to an increasing number of predisposed patients and developments in
medical interventions with increasing number of invasive medical
procedures, some Candida species previously considered to be
harmless commensals are emerging as causes of serious disease (1).
Fungal eye infections are extremely rare, but they can be very harmful
and may lead to blindness. Conjunctivitis is the most common eye
infection and Candida species can cause conjunctivitis as a
result of an eye injury or trauma; subsequently transmitted to the
bloodstream (2, 3). Candida parapsilosis sensu lato is one
of the common fungi causing conjunctivitis (1). C. parapsilosissensu lato is ubiquitous yeast in nature and found in all environments.
It is the most frequently colonizing species, isolated from the
subungual space of human hands; therefore, can spread nosocomially
through hand carriage. It has been frequently associated with infections
in newborns (1).
Candida metapsilosis as a recently describedCandida species is phenotypically and phylogenetically closely
related to Candida parapsilosis species complex but is
vary in geographic and anatomic prevalence, as well as in resistance
characteristics (4). Using genotypic methods, the clonally related
species of Candida parapsilosis complex was subsequently
divided into three distinguish species: the more prevalent Candida
parapsilosis sensu stricto , and two newly designate speciesCandida orthopsilosis and Candidametapsilosis (5, 6). It has been reported that 1–10% of theC. parapsilosis isolates identified through conventional
biochemical tests are indeed C. metapsilosis or C.
orthopsilosis (7).
We present a case of C. metapsilosis infection associated with
conjunctivitis in a 40-day-old girl referred to Children’s Medical
Center, undergoing heart surgery and admitted in Cardiac intensive care
unit. To the best of our knowledge this was the first case of C .metapsilosis with no previously reported cases in Iran.