ETIOLOGY OF MYCOSES IN LOWER EXTREMITY ERYSIPELAS

Objective. To investigate the culture of fungal pathogens of foot and nail mycoses, in patients with lower extremity erysipelas during a follow-up.
Subjects and methods. A group of 36 inpatients from Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital Two, Moscow Healthcare Department, who had been diagnosed as having moderate lower extremity erysipelas, was found to have concomitant fungal foot and nail infection in 81% of the cases, which necessitated mycological examination 5 months after prior erysipelas.
Results. Foot mycosis was diagnosed in 13 patients; foot and nail mycosis was in 16 patients. Repeated and recurrent erysipelas episodes in the presence of chronic fungal infection were seen in 56% of the cases whereas those in primary erysipelas were in 44%. Mycological examinations of patients with lower extremity erysipelas concurrent with foot and nail mycosis revealed a growth of cultured fungi: Aspergillus in 43% of the cases, Trichophiton in 43%, Candida in 14%, and a combination of Trichophiton rubrum and Aspergillus fumigatus in 20%.
Conclusion. The results of the investigation could identify the culture of fungi in lower extremity erysipelas, which is distinct from the typical pathogens of foot mycoses and onichomycoses and close to a class of fungal pathogens of otomycoses.

Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida glabrata, Trichophiton rubrum, lower extremity erysipelas, β-hemolytic Streptococcus, foot mycosis, onichomycosis, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida glabrata, Trichophiton rubrum