[Usefulness of fresh wet mount examination in the diagnosis of vaginal candidiasis].

A prospective study was done at the Clinic for Sexually Transmitted Diseases of the Department of Infectology, Instituto Nacional de Perinatología, Mexico City, in order to validate the fresh wet mount examination as a confirmatory test for vaginal candidiasis. Ninety six patients with cervico-vaginal infection were included, 22 of them had clinical candidiasis (22.9%). The fresh wet mount examination showed the presence of yeast and/or pseudomycelium in all 2 samples (100%). The presence of Candida in the cultures was confirmed in 18 of the 22 specimens (81.8). Negative in 71/96 (73.9%) (Three cultures were not processed). The fresh wet mount examination had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 94.8%. The positive predictive value was 88.8% while the negative predictive value was 100%. It can be concluded that the fresh wet mount examination is very recommendable, useful, economic and easy to practice at the physician's office for the confirmation of vaginal candidiasis.