Skin Mycobiome: Fungal Diversity in Intensive Care Patients

This study aimed to characterize the skin mycobiome during the first week of ICU stay and investigate its interactions within the ICU environment. Bilateral axillary-inguinal swabs were collected from 50 ICU patients on admission (D1) and on day 8 (D8). Culture-based methods and MALDI-TOF MS revealed a limited diversity, identifying only Candidaspp. Through ITS2 sequencing, Candida spp. (69.3%) was the predominant taxon, with Malassezia spp. present in only 0.7% of samples. The analysis showed an increase in richness and diversity by D8, though alpha and beta diversity measures indicated no significant association.