A Study on the Changes of Clinical Findings in Sporotrichosis for Recent 30 Years / 대한의진균학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The clinical types of sporotrichosis are generally classified into four groups: lymphocutaneous, fixed cutaneous, and cutaneous disseminated, and hematogenous. Of these, the lymphocutaneous variety is the most frequently encountered pattern, constituting 80% of sporotrichosis patients and the fixed cutaneous sporotrichosis is the next Potassium iodide (KI) was the most commonly used drug for the treatment of sporotrichosis. Many studies about these clinical findings of sporotrichosis have been reported, but comparative study on the changes in clinical findings has not been reported. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to clarify the changes of the clinical findings in sporotrichosis in Korea. METHODS: A total of 58 patients with sporotrichosis who had visited the Department of Dermatology, Pusan National University were divided into 2 groups according to the period and then the clinical findings of sporotrichosis were compared. RESULTS: The results of study are summarized as follows: 1. During this period, there were 58 cases of sporot.ichosis. In the past period (1967~1979) there were 35 cases of sporot.ichosis, and there were 23 cases in the recent period (1980 ~1997). 2. In the past period, most cases (71.4%) were lymphocutaneous type, however in the recent period, most cases (69.2%) were fixed cutaneous type. 3. The most commonly affected site was right upper extremity in the past period, but face & right upper extremity were the most commonly affected sites in the recent period. 4. In the past period, 2nd and 3rd decades were prevalent age group, but 5th to 7th decades were prevalent age group in the recent period. 5. In the treatment of sporotrichosis, potassium iodide (KI) was the choice of treatment in the past period, however itraconazole is gradually used in the recent period. CONCLUSION: According to this study, many changes in clinical findings of sporotrichosis were noted, especially in the clinical type. We found that conical type of sporotrichosis changed from lymphocutaneous type to the fixed cutaneous type with time. And we suggest that further observation would be necessary to define the meaning of these changes.