Abstract: Eighty-eight Candida strains isolated from clinical specimens were classified by morphological test, germ tube test, and serotyping, and patterns obtained were further analysed by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR).The results showed that Candida albicans was still the most common among Candida species.However, there is a "shift" trend because non-C.albicans species infection, especially C.tropicalis and C.parapsilosis infections markedly increased, and the infections caused by these two species almost equal to C.albicans infection.This "shift" trend will be important not only for guiding the clinical treatment, but also for the development of new antifungal agents.In this paper, the methods used for identification were also evaluated.

Key words: Candida, Changing patterns