Abstract
In vitro, susceptibilities were determined for 107 clinical isolates of Candida albicans obtained from the laboratory of King Abdulaziz University Hospital (UHC). The agents tested included amphotericin B (as a polyene), flucytosine (as a pyrimidine), and fluconazole (as an azole). MICs were determined by the broth microdilution technique following National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards document, using RPMI 1640 broth medium supplemented with 3 g glucose I-I, and the E-test with solidified RPMI 1640 supplemented with 18 g glucose 1-1. The susceptibility tests indicated that amphotericin B is the most active fungicidal drug, fluconazole was with less activity and flucytosine was more effective than the later drug. The appropriate rank order of best agreement between the MIC technique, E-test and disk diffusion methods was amphotericin B>flucytosine> fluconazole. The influence of the tested drugs in adherence of C.albicans on phenyl sepharose (resin) column indicated that amphotericin B was with high antiadherence activity, followed by fluconazole and flucytosine (47, 33 and 18%, respectively.) The effect of the drugs on mycelial formation by the tested C.albicans isolates revealed that amphotericin B showed 71% inhibition of mycelial formation, fluconazole 58% and flucytosine showed about 40% inhibition of mycelial formation.