Determination of sensitivity to antifungal drugs: evaluation of an API kit

Evaluation of a commercial kit method for testing sensitivity of yeasts to antifungal drugs was performed employing agar gel dilution as the reference method. For the cidal drugs amphotericin B and flucytosine, results were closely comparable. For the three azole drugs tested, miconazole, econazole and ketoconazole, the discrepant results obtained probably relate to a number of factors affecting the end-point when testing these agents. Although easy to perform, the kit method is relatively expensive and the newer antifungal agents (e.g. fluconazole and itraconazole) are not included. Though showing promise, the kit method has limitations in its present format.