Antifungal Drugs

Chapter

Abstract

The antifungal drugs currently used for the treatment of skin and mucosal diseases can be grouped into two large families and a number of smaller ones. Most of the antifungal drugs are broad spectrum in their antifungal activity in vitro and inhibit a wide variety of different fungi that cause superficial fungal disease. Many are available as either topical or systemic treatments. In vitro some behave as cidal compounds; in other words, the concentration at which they inhibit growth, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), is the same or very close to the concentration at which they destroy the fungi, the minimum cidal concentration (MCC). In theory, this property is an advantage, as it should mean that fungal cell death depends on drug concentration alone, although in real infections other factors such as local availability and in vivo structural adaptations play a key role in determining the outcome of treatment.

Keywords

Tinea Capitis Tinea Pedis Mould Fungus Tinea Corporis Pityriasis Versicolor 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Further Reading

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Dermatology DepartmentKings College Hospital NHS TrustLondonUK

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