Mansoor Dilnawaz, Nasser Rashid Dar.
Comparison of Various Diagnostic Modalities in Tinea Pedis.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;11(10):625-7.

Objective: To compare the accuracy of various wet mounts in relationship to culture positivity of Tinea Pedis. Design: A cross sectional study of 151 clinically suspected cases of tinea pedis. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the department of dermatology, PNS Shifa hospital, Karachi, from April 1999 to February 2000. Subjects and Methods: Skin scrapings were obtained from the affected areas and divided into six equal parts. The five parts were subjected to wet mounts for direct microscopy, the sixth part to culture on Sabouraud`s medium. The results were recorded according to a simple protocol and subjected to biostatistical evaluation. Results: The comparative biostatistical diagnostic yield of these wet mounts in relation to culture positivity rate, in terms of their accuracy were: 39% (10% potassium hydroxide mount), 40.3% (potassium hydroxide/dimethyl sulphoxide mount), 27.1% (potassium hydroxide/Parker`s ink mount), 35.7% (potassium hydroxide/methylene blue mount) and 60.9% (potassium hydroxide/lactophenol cotton blue mount). Conclusion: The traditional use of 10-20% KOH mounts, as an initial step in the diagnosis, should be abandoned because of the low diagnostic yield and be replaced by a mixture of KOH/lactophenol cotton blue mounts for the maximum diagnostic yield.

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