We developed a novel culture medium, referred to FastFung medium as suitable for the culture of clinical fungi, including fastidious ones, for both research and diagnostic studies. It is based on Schædler agar supplemented with many essential components for the growth of fastidious fungi. It also contains selective antibacterial agents for the inhibition of contaminant bacteria growth. In this preliminary study, the FastFung medium was compared to the gold standard Sabouraud medium for 98 fungal and 20 bacterial strains.

The fungal strain positive culture rate was 100% vs. 95% and the bacterial strain inhibition was 100% vs. 20%, for the FastFung and Sabouraud media, respectively. When compared to the Sabouraud medium on 120 clinical samples, the FastFung medium displayed both a higher fungal colonies count, and a lower culture contamination rate. Storage at 4 °C for 4 weeks did not alter the FastFung culture medium performances for the six isolates of Candida, Cryptococcus, and Penicillium tested.

These encouraging results suggest future development of using the FastFung medium in clinical mycology and in mycobiome characterization. Further prospective evaluation aiming at assessing whether implementing the FastFung medium in the routine workflow simplifies and strengthen fungal isolation capacities in the clinical laboratory is warranted.

我们开发了一种新型培养基，称为 FastFung 培养基，适用于临床真菌的培养，包括挑剔的真菌，用于研究和诊断研究。它以 Schædler 琼脂为基础，并辅以许多用于挑剔真菌生长的必需成分。它还含有选择性抗菌剂，用于抑制污染细菌的生长。在这项初步研究中，针对 98 种真菌和 20 种细菌菌株，将 FastFung 培养基与金标准 Sabouraud 培养基进行了比较。

对于 FastFung 和 Sabouraud 培养基，真菌菌株的阳性培养率为 100% 与 95%，细菌菌株的抑制率分别为 100% 与 20%。与 Sabouraud 培养基对 120 个临床样本进行比较时，FastFung 培养基显示出更高的真菌菌落计数和更低的培养污染率。在 4 °C 下储存 4 周不会改变测试的念珠菌、隐球菌和青霉菌六种分离株的 FastFung 培养基性能。

这些令人鼓舞的结果表明 FastFung 培养基在临床真菌学和真菌生物组表征中的未来发展。进一步的前瞻性评估旨在评估在常规工作流程中实施 FastFung 培养基是否可以简化和加强临床实验室的真菌分离能力。