Antifungal drug susceptibilities of commensal Candida isolates.

Two hundred and forty-two oral commensal yeast isolates were obtained from a convenience sample of 134 healthy 7- and 8-year-old children (65 males and 69 females). The isolates were initially tested for their susceptibilities to the antifungal azole drug fluconazole, using an agar diffusion method (Etest), which was suitable for screening large numbers of yeast isolates, and confirmed as equivalent to the broth microdilution reference method. Eighteen isolates from 7 children were found to have low fluconazole susceptibility according to guidelines published by the United States National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS).