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How Often Are Dermatophytes Present in Apparently Normal Versus Scaly Feet of Children?
Author(s) -
BecerrilChihu Georgina,
BazánMora Elva,
LópezMartínez Rubén,
SosadeMartínez Cristina,
RuizMaldonado Ramón
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
pediatric dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1525-1470
pISSN - 0736-8046
DOI - 10.1046/j.1525-1470.1999.00021.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dermatology , erythema , foot (prosody) , dermatophyte , prospective cohort study , hyperkeratosis , surgery , philosophy , linguistics
The purpose of this investigation was to find out how often pathogenic dermatophytes are found in apparently normal versus scaly feet of children. In this prospective protocol, we studied 100 patients, 2 to 12 years of age, consulting for plantar and/or interdigital scaling with or without erythema, maceration, and pruritus, and 100 controls with apparently healthy feet. Direct microscopic examination (KOH) and mycologic culture (Mycosel) of skin scrapings were performed from the lesions of patients and from the soles and interdigital folds of controls. Mean age of patients and controls was 7 years 7 months (SD = 3 years 2 months). Scaling was present in 100% of patients with a mean time of evolution of 8.9 months (SD = 16.3 months). Shoes fashioned from man‐made material were significantly more frequently used by patients than by controls (ξ 2 (df = 1) = 9.4; p = 0.002). Pathogenic dermatophytes were present in the soles and/or interdigital webs of 21 patients and 7 controls. Not all foot scaling in children, pruritic or not, is associated with dermatophytes. Dermatophytes may be present on the apparently healthy feet of children.