ABSTRACT
This study compared the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) results from the proposed standard methods of the Antifungal Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee of the European Committee on Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AFST-EUCAST) with the commercial system Etest(R) in the evaluation of susceptibility to flucytosine, fluconazole, itraconazole, voriconazole, and amphotericin B of 136 Candida spp. isolated from the blood of hospitalized children. The results presented a greater agreement among Etest(R) MICs +/-2 log2 dilutions of AFST-EUCAST for fluconazole (98.1% and 96.3%) and voriconazole (100% and 100%) for Candida albicans and Candida parapsilosis. For Candida glabrata, the agreement was greater only for fluconazole (81.8%) and voriconazole (100%). For amphotericin B, the agreement between the methods was low for all species. The agreement percentage among the Etest(R) and AFST-EUCAST susceptibility profiles was high according to the MIC breakpoints recommended by the M27-A2 protocol for the majority of the yeasts, except for fluconazole and itraconazole against Candida tropicalis and for itraconazole against C. glabrata and Candida krusei. According to both methodologies, a great number of Candida spp. isolates showed an in vitro susceptibility to all evaluated antifungal agents. Overall, both procedures can be reliable techniques for susceptibility tests of yeasts, but the assessment of interlaboratory agreement and correlation of MICs by different methods with in vivo response are of great importance.
Subject(s)
Antifungal Agents/pharmacology , Blood/microbiology , Candida/drug effects , Microbial Sensitivity Tests/methods , Amphotericin B/pharmacology , Brazil , Candida/isolation & purification , Child , Child, Preschool , Fluconazole/pharmacology , Flucytosine/pharmacology , Hospitals, Public , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Itraconazole/pharmacology , Pyrimidines/pharmacology , Reproducibility of Results , Sensitivity and Specificity , Triazoles/pharmacology , VoriconazoleABSTRACT
Microsporum canis is the main zoophylic dermatophyte in dogs and cats, and it is also an important zoonotic agent. The literature showed that cats are asymptomatic carriers of M. canis. This is apparently due to host resistance and/or the presence of strains with lower virulence. This study was aimed to evaluate the keratinolytic, elastinolytic and collagenolytic activities of M. canis strains and their relationship with symptomatic and asymptomatic cats. In addition, these strains were analysed by RFLP. The strains isolated from cats with clinical dermatophytosis had higher keratinase and elastase activity than those isolated from asymptomatic animals (p minus than 0.05). There were not differences in RFLP patterns based on Hind III digestion.