Abstract

The antifungal activities of seven commercially available antifungal drugs (fluconazole, itraconazole, ketoconazole, miconazole, clotrimazole, terbinafine and griseofulvin) were evaluated by broth micro-dilution method as proposed by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), against 70 dermatophyte isolates from hair, skin and nail specimens of patients with cutenous mycosis in Al-Medina city, Saudi Arabia. In this study, the microtiter plates were incubated at 28ºC allowing a reading of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) after four to five days of incubation. In vitro antifungal drug susceptibility studies showed that most of the dermatophytes had uniform patterns of susceptibility towards the tested antifungal agents. Of these antifungal agents, the best results in terms of sensitivity were found with terbinafine and clotrimazole, while the anti fungal activity of fluconazole and griseofulvin was found to be weak, particularly against strains of Trichophyton verrucosum. Although less effective than terbinafine and clotrimazole still the remaining four antifungal agents (itraconazole, ketoconazole and miconazole) also yielded satisfactory results.

Key words: Dermatophytes, antifungal agents, broth micro-dilution method, drug susceptibility test, minimal Inhibitory concentration (MIC).