Abstract

Background: Dermatophytoses in children are commonly seen but relatively infrequent than adults. Dermatophytoses in children can be different clinically and mycologically from those in adults in that children experience rapid physical changes and they have different skin features and environments from those of adults.

Objective: The goal of this research is to understand the clinical and mycological characteristics of dermatophytoses in children.

Methods: This clinical and mycological investigation was made with 15,684 patients under age 18 who were diagnosed with dermatophytoses from April, 1976 to March, 2005.

Results: The results can be summarized as follows:

1. The incidence of dermatophytoses in children to total number of pediatric outpatients was 6.4%. Male patients were 9,475 and female patients were 6,209 leaving male to female ratio of 1.5:1. Dermatophytoses showed high incidence in the age group between 13 and 18 (7,009).

2. Tinea pedis was 4,020 cases and the most common, followed by tinea cruris, tinea capitis, tinea corporis, tinea unguium, tinea faciale. Tinea capitis largely increased in 1980s and is falling off through 1990s, tinea pedis tends to increase since 1990s. The onsets in summer were the most eminent.

3. Among 15,684 cases, 9,395 cases (59.9%) yielded isolated strains on fungal culture. Trichophyton (T.) rubrum was 5,049 strains (53.7%) and the most common among the total isolated 9,395 strains followed by Microsporum (M.) canis, and T. mentagrophytes. M. canis was the most commonly isolated organism in tinea capitis and tinea manus but in other cases T. rubrum was.

Conclusions: Dermatophytoses in children are different clinically and mycologically from those in adults and vary with the change of the times.

Keywords

Children Dermatophytoses

KJMM 2009 June;14(2):69-78(10). Epub 2016 February 18
Copyright © 2009 by Korean Journal of Medical Mycology

Language

Korean/English

Author

Dong Nyeok Hyun; Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea
Hyun Chung; Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea
Joon Soo Park; Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea
Jae Bok Jun; Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Corresponding

Hyun Chung, Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea. Tel:(053) 650-4161, Fax: (053) 650-4891, e-mail: g9563009@cu.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.

Dong Nyeok Hyun

Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Hyun Chung

Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Joon Soo Park

Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Jae Bok Jun

Department of Dermatology, The Catholic University of Daegu School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Since epub date 2016 February 18