Candifast identifies some clinical yeast isolates, needs to improve in antifungal susceptibility

To evaluate its ability to identify clinical yeast isolates, we compared th e Candifast kit (International Microbio, Signes, France) to the API 20C (bi oMerieux, Marcy-l Etoile, France) system for 127 isolates representing 8 Ca ndida species; to determine its performance in antifungal susceptibility te sting, lye compared the Candifast kit to the E-test (AB Biodisk, Solna, Swe den) for 66 isolates. The results obtained from the identification portion of the kit achieved 93% agreement with the API 20C; discrepancies were appa rent with Candida tropicalis, in which 8 of 18 (44%) isolates were incorrec tly identified as Candida albicans. The antifungal susceptibility results o btained agreed with those of the E-test only in susceptibility to amphoteri cin; discrepancies between 35% and 80% occurred with flucytosine, ketoconaz ole, and fluconazole. To be incorporated as a routine test in clinical labo ratories, the performance of the Candifast kit should improve in both yeast identification and susceptibility testing.