A Case of Dermatophytosis of Trichophyton rubrum Developed on the Scalp and Trunk in an Adult by the Molecular Biologically Same Strain / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

The disease of tinea capitis rarely occurs in adults. Cases infected by Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum) in the scalp of adults are especially rare. A 71 year-old woman presented who developed inflammatory scaly, erythematous papules and sparsely hairy patch on Rt. Side of scalp and scaly, erythematous patch with central clearing on lower abdomen and trunk. According to her history she had tinea pedis et unguium for a long time. The pruritic scaly patch had developed on scalp and trunk one week previously. We found ectothrix using KOH mount on her hair and hyphae on her toenail, toeweb, palm and trunk. T. rubrum was cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar. A biopsy was performed on the sparsely hairy patch and we found infiltration of inflammatory cells in upper dermis and around hair follicle. Furthermore T. rubrum, which were cultured from several parts of body, were confirmed the same strain by analysis of DNA sequencing and ribosomal DNA (rDNA) nontranscribed spacer. Herein we proved a rare case of dermatophytosis in adult by the same strain, T. rubrum, identified by analysis of DNA sequencing and rDNA nontranscribed spacer, causing tinea capitis as well as tinea pedis and tinea corporis. We think that this will be useful basic data of epidemiologic study and classification of dermatophytes.