Epidemiology and In-Vitro Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of Dermatophytes in Hyderabad, India

The objectives of the study were to find the epidemiological patterns of dermatophytic infections in Hyderabad, India;to estimate their prevalence in the study population and to explore the in-vitro antifungal susceptibility patterns of the isolates. Fifty(50) clinical samples from patients of age between 18-55 years, with lesions suggestive of Tinea infection were collected and processed. Samples included skin, hair, nail from adult patients. KOH mount was done for direct exam. Culture was done on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar with antibiotics and cycloheximide and on dermatophyte test medium. Lactophenol cotton blue mounts and urease test were performed for species identification. Antifungal sensitivity testing was done using a disk-diffusion method on RPMI-1640 medium with L-glutamine and without bicarbonate buffered with MOPS and supplemented with 1.5% Bactoagar. Females constituted 54% of the study group and males constituted 46%. Tineacapitis was common in the younger males (18-30 years), with Tineapedis in (31-42 years) and Tineacruris in the older age group of (43-55 years), Tineaunguium was the commonest across most age groups of females. Among detectionmethods for dermatophyticfungi, culture proved the better method with a detection of 74% as compared to 68% for fungalhyphae by KOH mount.Trichophytonrubrum was the commonest isolate in cases with Tineacruris, Tineacorporis and Tineamanuum.The study showed an isolation rate of 75%, which is on the higher side as patients were mostly from lower socio-economic strata, living in overcrowded dwellings, aggravating the infectiousness of these dermatophytic fungi.