Isolation of echinocandin-resistant Candida tropicalis from endotracheal secretions of a patient without prior drug exposure

Isolation of two echinocandin-resistant Candida tropicalis strains from endotracheal secretions of a patient, with no previous exposure to echinocandins, is described. Both strains exhibited resistance to caspofungin by Etest and broth microdilution test, showed S645P mutation within the hot-spot(HS)-1 region of FKS1 and belonged to a unique multilocus sequence type. Other C. tropicalis isolates collected from the same intensive care unit patients within 60 day-period were susceptible to caspofungin and contained wild-type FKS1 sequences.