Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of dermatophytes--comparison of the agar macrodilution and broth microdilution tests.

Fifty dermatophyte strains, recently obtained from clinical material, belonging to 4 different species were examined for their susceptibility to 5 systemic or topical antimycotic agents using both an agar macrodilution and a broth microdilution test. Antimycotics compared were griseofulvin, itraconazole, sertaconazole, terbinafine and ciclopiroxolamine. A comparison of the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) clearly showed differences between the two test methods applied. For all 5 antimycotics, MIC data were three- to seventy-fold lower in the microdilution test system. These differences, depending on the test method, have to be taken into account when comparing MIC data in the literature or when relating the in vitro data to the tissue concentrations determined in vivo.