Species composition and dynamic changes of vaginal microbiota in patients with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Objective To investigate the species composition and dynamic changes of vaginal microbiota in patients with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis （RVVC）. Methods Six patients with confirmed symptomatic RVVC were enrolled in this study. During the onset of RVVC, 1 high vaginal swab sample was collected from each patient on a daily basis to identify the vaginal microbiota. Principal co-ordinate analysis （PCoA）, thermogram analysis and α diversity analysis were adopted to analyze the species composition and dynamic changes of vaginal microbiota in RVVC patients. Results PCoA analysis between groups showed that the species composition of vaginal microbiota in patients with RVVC was similar at the interval between onset, but the species difference was increased at several days before the onset and on the day of onset. Thermogram analysis suggested that the distance between microbiota was large in the onset stage and at the interval between onset of RVVC, and the intermediate difference of microbiota began to converge