Comparison of the Sensititre YeastOne colorimetric antifungal panel with CLSI microdilution for antifungal susceptibility testing of the echinocandins against Candida spp., using new clinical breakpoints and epidemiological cutoff values.

A commercially prepared dried colorimetric microdilution panel (Sensititre Yeast One, TREK Diagnostic Systems, Cleveland, OH, USA) was compared in 3 different laboratories with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) reference microdilution method by testing 2 quality control strains, 25 reproducibility strains, and 404 isolates of Candida spp. against anidulafungin, caspofungin, and micafungin. Reference CLSI BMD MIC end points and YeastOne colorimetric end points were read after 24 h of incubation. Excellent (100%) essential agreement (within 2 dilutions) between the reference and colorimetric MICs was observed. Categorical agreement (CA) between the 2 methods was assessed using the new species-specific clinical breakpoints (CBPs): susceptible (S), ≤0.25 µg/mL; intermediate (I), 0.5 µg/mL; and resistant (R), ≥1 µg/mL, for C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. krusei, and ≤2 µg/mL (S), 4 µg/mL (I), and ≥8 µg/mL (R) for C. parapsilosis and all 3 echinocandins. The new CBPs for anidulafungin and caspofungin and C. glabrata are ≤0.12 µg/mL (S), 0.25 µg/mL (I), and ≥0.5 µg/mL (R), whereas those for micafungin are ≤0.06 µg/mL (S), 0.12 µg/mL (I), and ≥0.25 µg/mL (R). Due to the lack of CBPs for any of the echinocandins and C. lusitaniae, the epidemiological cutoff values (ECVs) were used for this species to categorize the isolates as wild-type (WT; MIC ≤ECV) and non-WT (MIC >ECV), respectively, for anidulafungin (≤2 µg/mL/>2 µg/mL), caspofungin (≤1 µg/mL/>1 µg/mL), and micafungin (≤0.5 µg/mL/>0.5 µg/mL). CA ranged from 93.6% (caspofungin) to 99.6% (micafungin) with less than 1% very major or major errors. The YeastOne colorimetric method remains comparable to the CLSI BMD reference method for testing the susceptibility of Candida spp. to the echinocandins when using the new (lower) CBPs and ECVs. Further study using defined fks mutant strains of Candida is warranted.