Comparative evaluation of Fungitest registered , Neo-Sensitabs registered and M27T-NCCLS broth microdilution methods for antifungal drug susceptibility testing of Candida species and Cryptococcus neoformans

• Published in: Mycoses Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 231 - 237
• Main Authors: Swinne, D, Raes-Wuytack, C, Van Looveren, K, Desmet, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: 01-01-1999
• Subjects: Candida; Cryptococcus neoformans
• ISSN: 0933-7407

Two commercial antifungal susceptibility testing systems (Fungitest registered and Neo-Sensitabs registered ) were compared with the M27T-NCCLS reference broth microdilution method using one hundred isolates of Candida sp. and Cryptococcus neoformans. Six different antifungal drugs were tested: amphotericin B, 5-fluorocytosine, fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole and miconazole. The overall agreement between the Fungitest and the reference methods was much better than between the Neo-Sensitabs and the reference methods: the agreement for the Fungitest ranged from 100% for amphotericin B to 76.7% for itraconazole whereas for the Neo-Sensitabs, it ranged from 90.4% for amphotericin B to 36% for ketoconazole. For the total number of tests performed with Neo-Sensitabs, there were 37.8% of discrepancies with the reference method whereas for the tests performed with Fungitest, there was only 16.5% of discrepancies. Major discrepancies, defined as results that classified an isolate as susceptible by one method and resistant by another, occurred in 21 cases for the Neo-Sensitabs test and only in four cases with the Fungitest, namely 0.6% of the cases. We conclude that the Fungitest method constitutes a simple and reliable procedure for antifungal drug susceptibility testing.