Objective: Trichosporon species have a widespread distribution in the nature and human skin and mucosa can be colonized with Trichosporon species. Invasive infections caused by Trichosporon species are uncommon but frequently fatal in immunosuppressive patients. Correct identification of Trichosporon species is challenging but important for appropriate treatment approches. As an alternative to phenotypic and genome-based identification techniques, Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionizationtime of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is emerging as a rapid and accurate identification method. In this study we aimed to evaluate MALDI-TOF MS (Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) for the identification of Trichosporon species and compare it with frequently used API ID 32C (bioMérieux, Marcy I’Etoile, France) and VITEK 2 (bioMérieux, Marcy I’Etoile, France).

Material and Methods: A total of 45 Trichosporon strains that were isolated from intensive care unit patients and identified by conventional methods at the genus leve, were identified by MALDI TOF MS, API ID 32C and VITEK 2 and the results were compared.

Results: All systems yielded fully (100 %) concordant results for all of the isolates. Forty-four (97.8%) of the 45 isolates were identified as T. asahii and one (2.2%) as T. mucoides.

Conclusion: The MALDI TOF MS method was found to be an easily applicable alternative tool for identifying T. asahii strain of Trichosporon spp. with the comparable diagnostic accuracy as API ID 32 C, and VITEK 2 but with low costs, and faster yield.