Tinea pedis is frequently found in people with poor personal hygiene and in hot, humid environments. The authors investigated the clinical, epidemiological, and mycological characteristics of tinea pedis in 170 garbage workers (166 males and 4
females)
employed in a gar bage plant in Seoul, Korea. 40 were clerical workers and 130 were field workers. Tinea pedis was found in 134 with a prevalence rate of 78.8%. Of those 134, 61 (45.5%) also had onychomycosis. The prevalence of tinea pedis
increased
with age and the period working in garbage plant. However, there was no difference in the prevalence of tinea pedis between clerical workers and field workers, mitigating against the conclusion that their tinea pedismay be of occupational origin.
Clinically tinea pedis was classified into 4 types ; interdigital (41.8%), vesicular (23.1%), dry squamous (22.4%), and mixed (12.7%). KOH smear positivi ty and culture positivity was related to clinical types of the lesion, the lowest in the
interdigital type. In the interdigital type, the etiology of non-mycotic lesions could not be identified. Negative fungal cultures could have been due to secondary bacterial infections. 63 strains of dermatophytes were isolated ; 54 strains of
Trichophyton rubrum (85.7%), 8 strains of Trichophyton mentagrophytes (12.7%) and 1 mixed infection of T. rubrum and T. mentagrophytes. T. mentagrophytes was isolated only from the vesicular lesions. 8 strains of yeast forms, positive in KOH
smears
and
yielding pure colonies, were also isolated. and repeatd mycologic exami nation yielded the same results. Among them, at least 4 cases of Trichosporon beigelii, and 1 case of Candida parapsilosis were considered to be of pathogenic significance.
(Kor J Dermatol 1992 ; 30 (3) : 340-346)
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