The in-vitro antifungal spectrum of itraconazole

The activity of itraconazole on 6113 fungal strains belonging to 252 species was evaluated in fluid media. The test medium was brain heart infusion broth for all fungi, except for Pityrosporum ovale, for which it was Dixon broth. Most of the human and animal pathogens and a large number of saprophytes were highly sensitive: dermatophytes, Candida, Cryptococcus, Torulopsis, Pityrosporum, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Sporothrix, dimorphic fungi, phaeohyphomycetes, agents of eufungal mycetoma, Entomophtorales and various others. The majority of Fusarium species and the Zygomycetes were poorly sensitive. Itraconazole was not only fungistatic at low concentrations, but also fungicidal for the tested organisms, such as Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, Aspergillus fumigatus, P. ovale and Cryptococcus neoformans with or without replenishment. Itraconazole was able to block the morphogenetic transformation of C. albicans from the yeast phase into the (pseudo)-mycelium phase.