Oral Candida albicans in patients with Sjogren's syndrome

Candida species are common inhabitants of the oral cavity of patients with salivary gland dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and density of oral Candida albicans in patients with Sjogren's syndrome, to assess the infectious agent's oral manifestations and to compare the number of colony-forming units (CFU) of C. albicans in patients with primary (n=9) and secondary Sjogren's (n=18) with the whole unstimulated salivary flow rate in each group. An age- and sex-matched group of control subjects (n=14) was selected for comparison. An oropharyngeal collection of samples was taken from each subject and cultured. Quantitative cultures specific for C. albicans were obtained. The frequency distribution showed that more than 80% of all research subjects had positive results for C. albicans whereas the control subjects had no positive results. The most common lesion was erythematous candidiasis, followed by angular cheilitis. The Sjogren's subjects also demonstrated significantly higher numbers of C. albicans CFU than controls. Findings from this study demonstrate that patients with primary or secondary Sjogren 's syndrome had significantly greater C. albicans colonization compared with the control population. C. albicans colonization was greater in primary Sjogren's patients than in secondary Sjogren's patients; however, the quantity of C. albicans found in each population was not universally relative to salivary flow.