Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Dermatophytes by Agar Based Disk Diffusion Assay in Tertiary Care Hospital, Nepal

Background: Dermatophytes are fungi, which cause most of superficial fungal infections. Several antifungal agents are commercially available to treat these dermatophytes.

Methods: We adopted a newly developed agar based disk diffusion assay to test susceptibility of 72 clinically isolated dermatophytes belonging to 5 species Trichophyton interdigitale (44), Trichophtyon rubrum (13), Trichophyton tonsurans (6), Microsporum canis (6), and Epidermatophyton floccosum (3). The process involved the application of four commercially available anti-fungal disks namely Ketoconazole (15 µg), Miconazole (10 µg), Fluconazole (25 µg) and Clotrimazole (10 µg) for antifungal susceptibility testing.

Results: The study shows miconazole is the most effective antifungal drugs against dermatophytes followed by ketoconazole and clotrimozazole.

Conclusions: The disk diffusion assay method for antifungal susceptibility testing of dermatophytes species in this in vitro study may give insights into the application in therapeutic strategy against dermatophytic infections. Disk diffusion method is a simple and cost-effective for susceptibility testing of dermatophytes.