Mycological profile of intertrigo of foot in a tertiary care hospital, Mysore, South India

Abstract

Introduction: Intertrigo is an inflammatory condition of skin folds commonly seen in any age from infancy to old age and one of the major cause for clinical consultations. Intertrigo is due to heat, moisture or lack of air circulation and the infection is most commonly seen in patients with diabetes. Foot intertrigo is the infection of Toe web spaces occurring mainly at interdigital toe web spaces. The friction of skin folds may lead to several complications which includes bacterial or fungal infections. Materials and Methods: A total of 75 clinically suspected cases of foot intertrigo were included in the study. Skin scrapings from the suspected cases of intertrigo were collected with standard precautions and all the samples were subjected to direct microscopy using 10% Potassium hydroxide and observed for presence of fungal elements and simultaneously the sample is processed for culture onto fungal culture media to identify the causative agents of foot intertrigo. Results: A total of 75 skin scrapings from the infected foot for Mycological study were collected among which 38 samples were collected from male patients and 37 samples were from female patients. Of 75 skin scrapings, 31 were 10% KOH positive and remaining 44 were negative to microscopy. On culture 34 samples were culture positive and 41 were culture negative. Out of 34 culture positive samples, Candida albicans were isolated in 15 specimens and Non-candida albicans in 6. Remaining samples yielded growth of moulds in which Dermatophytes (Trichophyton-3, Epidermophyton-1) were 4 isolates and Fusarium yielded growth in 9 samples. Conclusion: From our study, we conclude that intertrigo is a chronic inflammation. This might occur at any age. In our descriptive study, Candida albicans were predominantly isolated followed by other moulds such as Fusarium and Dermatophytes. Keywords: Intertrigo, Candida albicans, Fusarium, Dermatophytes.