Evaluation of the new Id-Fungi plates from Conidia for MALDI-TOF MS identification of filamentous fungi and comparison with conventional methods as identification tool for dermatophytes from nails, hair and skin samples.

Objectives: We first compare the efficiency of mould/dermatophyte identification by MALDI-TOF MS using a new medium called Id-Fungi plates (IDFP) from Conidia and two different databases. For the second purpose, we evaluated a new version of the medium supplemented with cycloheximide, Id-Fungi plates Plus (IDFPC) for the direct inoculation of nails, hair and skin samples and compared the efficiency of MALDI-TOF MS identification of dermatophytes to classical methods based on culture and microscopy.

Methods: A total of 71 strains have been cultured IDFP and Sabouraud gentamicin plates (SGC2) and were identified by MALDI-TOF MS.