Abstract

Background: Dermatophytes are spreading through the scales shed from the skin lesions. Because other coexistent dermatophytoses such as tinea unguium of the toe nails and tinea cruris are common in the patients with tinea pedis, the skin lesion of tinea pedis might act as a reservoir of other dermatophytoses.

Objective: The aim of this study is to verify the route of the infection through the identification of dermatophytes in the common sites of coexistent dermatophytoses and clothes.

Methods: Mycological study was conducted in the finger, the hyponychium of the finger, the groin, the socks and the underpants which were predicted as common spreading sites of dermatophytes in 50 patients with tinea pedis.

Results: Dermatophytes were cultured from the feet of 37 patients (74.0%) among 50 patients with tinea pedis. Thirty seven (74.0%) patients were contaminated at least 1 site of clothes and body other than feet. Average 1.48 sites were contaminated among 5 sites (finger, hyponychium of the finger, groin, socks, underpants) where fungal culture was conducted in patients with tinea pedis. The isolation rate of dermatophytes in the finger after scratching the lesion was 48.0%, and that of the socks was 46.0%. The patients with coexistent dermatophytoses showed relatively wide distribution of the contaminated sites, but isolation rate of dermatophytes from the body sites and the clothes had no correlation with the involved area of the feet, the clinical types of tinea pedis and the number of coexistent infection sites.

Conclusion: Several other sites of the body and the clothes were contaminated by dermatophytes in the patients with tinea pedis, and could predict not only the scales shed from the lesion of tinea and the environment containing dermatophytes but also dermatophytes from the contaminated body and the clothes can play a role in spreading dermatophytoses.

Keywords

Isolation of dermatophytes Body Clothes Tinea pedis

KJMM 2001 March;6(1):26-36(11). Epub 2016 February 22
Copyright © 2001 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Jin Woo Park; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea
Jong Soo Choi; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea
Ki Hong Kim; Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea

Corresponding

Ki Hong Kim, Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea. Tel: (053) 620-3160, Fax: (053) 622-2216, e-mail: yuhderm@medical.yeungnam.ac.kr

Publication history

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.

Jin Woo Park

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea

Jong Soo Choi

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea

Ki Hong Kim

Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 22