Abstract

Tinea incognito is a dermatophytosis of atypical clinical manifestation due to improper use of topical or systemic corticosteroids. We report two cases of tinea incognito misdiagnosed as eczema by nondermatologist physicians. First, the lesions were manifested by pruritic, scaly localized erythematous macules and patches on the left ankle in a 61-year-old woman. She had been treated with topical steroids for 1 month without improvement. KOH smear revealed multiple fungal hyphae and histopathologic examination revealed the presence of fungal hyphae in the stratum corneum. Second, the lesions were manifested by localized scaly erythematous patches with pruritus on the face in a 76-year-old woman. She had been also treated with topical steroids for 2 months. KOH mount was positive for hyphae. All two patients were treated with 250 mg of terbinafine daily for 2 weeks and topical flutrimazole application. The lesions improved one month after treatment and no recurrence was observed.

Keywords

Eczema Tinea incognito

KJMM 2013 December;18(4):117-121(5). Epub 2016 February 17
Copyright © 2013 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Dong Woo Suh; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea
Bark Lynn Lew; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea
Young Sim; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding

Bark Lynn Lew, Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea. Tel: +82-2-440-7335, Fax: +82-2-440-7336, e-mail: bellotte@hanmail.net

Publication history

Received 24 December 2013; Revised 24 December 2013; Accepted 30 December 2013.

Acknowledgements

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Dong Woo Suh

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea

Bark Lynn Lew

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea

Young Sim

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee University, Seoul, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 17