Background: Superficial and subcutaneous mycoses have a high prevalence and, often, chronic evolution. Therefore, they need extensive treatment with topic and/or systemic antifungal agents. Azoles and alilamines (terbinafine) are first-choice drugs to treat human and animal infections. Thus, evaluation of the efficacy of these drugs is important for a successful treatment. However, there are few studies that evaluate the in vitro activity of antifungal agents.
Objective: To evaluate the in vitro efficacy of terbinafine activity against filamentous fungi and yeasts that cause mycoses.
Method: The in vitro activity of terbinafine (0.125-100microg) against 10 fungi species was evaluated by the diskdiffusion and microdilution/reference methods to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC).
Results: We found a high susceptibility to terbinafine in: T. rubrum, M. gypseum, T. mentagrophytes, T. tonsurans, M. canis, C. carrionii and E. floccosum (halo > or = 40mm with 0.125microg disk). S. hyalinum and C. parapsilosis were considered susceptible, but less than the others. Fusarium spp. showed the lowest susceptibility (halo=12mm with 2microg disk; MIC 8microg/mL).
Conclusions: The results of this research confirm previous findings about the efficacy of terbinafine. The drug was shown to be highly effective to treat dermatophyte infections. The disk-diffusion method was easy to use and is a suitable technique for routine use in clinical laboratories.