Azer Rashid, Qadir SNR, Shahid Jamal.
Tinea Pedis in children in Peshawar.
J Postgrad Med Inst Jan ;18(2):300-4.

Objective: Tinea pedis is an infrequent disease in children before the age of puberty. There are few epidemiologic and clinical data regarding cases of tinea pedis observed in children in Peshawar. Material and Methods: We prospectively collected all cases of tinea pedis in children diagnosed during the years 1999-2000. Only those showing a positive result with potassium hydroxide preparation (KOH) were included in the study. We performed fungal cultures in Sabouraud`s agar in all cases to document the etiologic fungi. The clinical characteristics were investigated. Results: 102 children with foot dermatitis were screened out of which a total of 21 children, aged 3 months to 14 years, were included. Fifteen patients were boys and six were girls. The mean age was 7.1 years. All the children were otherwise healthy. The intertriginous type was most common (53.3%). The first or second toe-webs were the sites of predilection (32.3%). Eighteen children (86%) had a family history of tinea pedis and more than half of cases (52.4%) showed occurrence in the summer. The results of fungal cultures were positive in 13 patients (57%). The other associated dermatoses over onychomycosis (33.3%) atopic dermatitis (14%), plantar warts (10%) and chronic Urticaria (5%). Trichophyton rubrun was the most commonly isolated pathogen (69.2%). Tinea pedis cleared after treatment with topical antifungals with or without systemic antifungals in all cases. Conclusion: Tinea pedis in children can occur more frequently than suspected. Our study shows strong association with family history and seasonal relationship with occurrence in summer in more than half of cases. The condition was more common in the lower socio-economic class of patients.

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