FIG 1.

Fungal burden is elevated in women with RVVC while bacterial load remains unchanged. To assess fungal load, patient lavage was incubated on Candida Chromogenic agar plates and colonies counted after 48 h (a). For calculation of CFE/ml, the ITS region of Candida was amplified using genus-specific primers (b). Levels of bacteria DNA were also assessed molecularly by amplification of the 16S rRNA region (c). Correlation between bacterial and fungal burden was also observed (d). Data are means ± standard deviations (SD). Statistical significance was calculated using unpaired t tests with Welch’s correction, as data did not share equal standard deviations (*, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01).