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CASTLE

Candida and Staph Transmission: Longitudinal Evaluation

What is the study about?

The CASTLE study was initiated to investigate the roles played by Candida and Staphylococcus aureus in nipple and breast pain among breastfeeding women. Most women who are breastfeeding do not experience any breast infections. However about one woman in five will develop a breast infection, such as mastitis. At present, it is not known whether burning nipple pain associated with radiating breast pain is caused by a fungal infection (Candida albicans, known as “thrush”) or a bacterial infection (Staphylococcus aureus, known as “Golden Staph”). Therefore the aim of the CASTLE study is to investigate the role of these micro-organisms in nipple and breast pain among breastfeeding women.

How are we doing this?

We are recruiting women who are planning to breastfeed at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Frances Perry House. Women are recruited in late pregnancy and we obtain two swabs from the woman at this time point to get an indication of Candida and S. aureus colonisation before the birth. We follow the woman through until eight weeks after birth, taking nasal and nipple swabs and breast milk samples at five defined time points. We also obtain nasal and oral swabs from her baby. These swabs are used to detect the presence of Candida or Staphylococcus and allow us to track these microorganisms over time. We carry out this microbiological analysis in conjunction with questionnaires at each time point. These questionnaires ask specific questions relating to mothers’ health and breastfeeding problems. Therefore we will use all of this information to address the role played by these microorganisms in nipple and breast pain.

Who is funding the study?

This is an eighteen month project funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). We aim to commence recruiting women for the CASTLE study in October 2009.

Who are the researchers?

The Principal Investigator is Dr Lisa Amir, a General Practitioner, Lactation Consultant and Senior Research Fellow at Mother & Child Health Research, La Trobe University. The Associate Investigators involved in CASTLE are Prof Suzanne Garland and A/Prof Sepehr Tabrizi from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Prof Catherine Bennett from Deakin University and A/Prof Susan Donath from the Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit (CEBU) at the Royal Children’s Hospital. Dr Matthew Payne is employed as the scientist for the CASTLE study. He is supervising the microbiological and molecular investigations associated with the project. The CASTLE study is being co-ordinated at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Frances Perry House by Dr Meabh Cullinane.

Privacy & Access to Information

Information collected is kept confidential and the data will be used only for the purposes of this study. We have research ethics approval to conduct the CASTLE project. For more information about the CASTLE study, please contact Dr Lisa Amir (l.amir@latrobe.edu.au) or Dr Meabh Cullinane (m.cullinane@latrobe.edu.au)













Content Approved by: Director, Mother and Child Health Research Page maintained by: Administrator Last Updated: 24 February, 2011