RAPID SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTING OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS BY FLOW-CYTOMETRY

The emerging magnitude of human fungal infections has renewed interest in developing rapid and standardized methods for susceptibility testi ng, We demonstrated that susceptibility testing of Candida albicans ca n be accomplished rapidly by using flow cytometry. Test results were a vailable within 8 to 24 h after C. albicans isolates were incubated wi th amphotericin B, itraconazole, and flucytosine, This is an improveme nt of 24 to 60 h in the time to availability of susceptibility test re sults compared to the time to availability of National Committee for C linical Laboratory Standards-recommended broth macrodilution test resu lts. In addition, the flow cytometric endpoints, mean channel fluoresc ence, and number of fluorescence-labeled C. albicans cells were easy t o interpret for greater sensitivity and reliability. Flow cytometry pr ovides a more accurate means of obtaining antifungal susceptibility te st results.