Antifungal susceptibility testing

John H. Rex, Michael A. Pfaller, Michael G. Rinaldi, Anamarie Polak, John N. Galgiani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

260 Scopus citations

Abstract

Unlike antibacterial susceptibility testing, reliable antifungal susceptibility testing is still largely in its infancy. Many methods have been described, but they produce widely discrepant results unless such factors as pH, inoculum size, medium formulation, incubation time, and incubation temperature are carefully controlled. Even when laboratories agree upon a common method, interlaboratory agreement may be poor. As a result of numerous collaborative projects carried out both independently and under the aegis of the Subcommittee on Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards, the effects of varying these factors have been extensively studied and a standard method which minimizes interlaboratory variability during the testing of Candida spp. and Cryptococcus neoformans has been proposed. This review summarizes this work, reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed susceptibility testing standard, and identifies directions for future work.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)367-381
Number of pages15
JournalClinical Microbiology Reviews
Volume6
Issue number4
StatePublished - Oct 1993

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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