AN EVALUATION OF 7 METHODS OF IN-VITRO SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING OF CLINICAL YEAST ISOLATES AGAINST FLUCONAZOLE

Four commercially available in vitro test systems (Candifast(R), E-test, Mycototal(R), Spiral-Gradient Endpoint Method), agardiffusion with 25 mu g fluconazole paper test discs and 15 mu g test tablets, and agardilution were compared to the microbroth dilution method by fluconazole susceptibility testing of 145 clinical isolates. In addition, the culture media provided or recommended by the manufacturers of the test systems were compared to the high resolution (HR) antifungal test medium. With all currently available culture media growth problems (inhibition or delayed growth of the clinical isolates) occurred with solid or semi-solid media. With minor improvements, HR medium demonstrated the most reproducible and comparable results (supplementation with asparagine and deletion of sodium hydrogen carbonate). Best correlation to microdilution was obtained by the agardilution method (> 95% concordance) followed by the spiral-gradient endpoint method (85%), Candifast(R) (83%), Mycototal(R) (81%) and the E-test (78%). Regression analysis demonstrated good correlation between agardiffusion and micro-/agardilution (r > 0.9).