Detection of species in pregnant Chinese women with a molecular beacon method.

pathogens are commonly found in women and can cause vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), whose infection rate is further increased during pregnancy. We aimed to study the prevalence and strain distribution in pregnant Chinese women with a molecular beacon assay. From March 2016 to February 2017, a total of 993 pregnant women attending routine antenatal visits at the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital were enrolled. For detection and identification, a unique molecular beacon assay was presented and compared with a traditional phenotypic method. Antifungal susceptibility was tested with the following agents: 5-flucytosine, amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole and voriconazole. The prevalence of was found to be 21.8 % when using the molecular method and 15.0 % when using the phenotypic method. The distribution of the spp. was listed in order of decreasing prevalence: (79.8 %), (13.5 %), (3.7 %), (2.2 %) and (1.1 %). We found that 90.7 % of the detection results were consistent between the molecular and the phenotypic methods. In the cases where the sequencing analyses for the isolates resulted in inconsistent identification, the molecular method showed higher sensitivity than the phenotypic method (96.0 vs 64.6 %). , and were essentially susceptible to all five antifungal agents tested, whereas and were susceptible to voriconazole and amphotericin B. By exhibiting good sensitivity and specificity, the molecular assay may offer a fast and accurate screening platform for pregnant women.