Progress in standardizing antifungal susceptibility tests.

In vitro tests of antifungal agents are receiving increasing attention as important procedures for the clinical laboratory. As antifungal agents proliferate, it will become more and more valuable to have available antifungal susceptibility tests to aid in treatment selections based on the specific activities of different drugs against a patient's own isolate. Evidence is accumulating that in vitro tests can significantly correlate with treatment results and thus have the potential to improve patient care. Furthermore, concerted efforts are now underway to improve agreement in test results from different laboratories. As these activities continue, the availability of reliable testing methods for yeasts is likely to occur in the foreseeable future.