Comparison of disk diffusion method and broth microdilution method for antifungal susceptibility testing of dermatophytes

The use of the agar diffusion Neo-Sensitabs® method to determine antifungal susceptibility of 59 isolates of dermatophytes, namely Epidermophyton floccosum, Microsporum canis, M. gypseum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, T. rubrum and T. tonsurans to Clotrimazole (CLZ), Itraconazole (ITZ) and Terbinafine (TBF) is described. Results obtained are compared to the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determined by an adaptation of the NCCLS-M38-A procedure. Using the diffusion method, all strains showed a broad zone of inhibition at the first available reading time (3 or 7 days). Using the broth microdilution method, the geometric mean MIC (μg/ml) with regard to all isolates was ≤ 0.03 for TBF, ≤ 0.069 for CLZ and ≤ 0.919 for ITZ. In both methods, TBF was the most active antifungal agent against all isolates tested. The two methods evaluated were able to detect the resistance of the quality control strains of Aspergillus fumigatus to ITZ. Even though a reference method for testing dermatophytes still has not been developed, our data suggest that the Neo-Sensitabs® diffusion method could provide a simple procedure for the antifungal susceptibility testing of dermatophytes in the routine clinical laboratory. © 2005 ISHAM.