Background

Mucormycosis is an invasive fungal infection that occurs in immunodeficiency patients and belongs to infections caused by mucoral fungi, such as Rhizopus and Rhizomucor.

Objectives

This study investigated the identification and detection of the mucor fungus in tissue samples and other samples by the real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional-descriptive study. A total of 80 tissue samples were collected from referring patients to diagnose fungi with the opinion of a specialist doctor. After extracting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the samples, PCR and real-time PCR tests were performed using specific primers for mucor and universal-pan and compared to culture. The results were confirmed by sequencing.

Results

In this study, 80 samples were examined. In the PCR method, 74 and 75 cases of fungi were confirmed from the DNA obtained from the colonies and tissues, respectively. By using a specific primer for mucor, 12 patients were reported as positive for mucor. Additionally, 76 and 77 cases of fungi were confirmed in the real-time PCR method from the DNA obtained from the colonies and tissues, respectively, and positive cases were reported. By using specific primers and the real-time PCR test for mucor, 16 cases of mucor were reported from colonies, and 15 cases of mucor were reported positive from tissues.

Conclusions

This study showed that real-time PCR and PCR are high-speed and more accurate methods than the culture test in identifying its species and have acceptable results in clinical cases.