A survey of dermatophytes isolated from human patients in the United States from 1982 to 1984

Abstract

A survey of dermatophytes isolated from patients seeking medical advice was made from 1982 to 1984 in the United States. The survey included 59 locations with data from 49 cities and one state. Listing of the isolated dermatophytes and the frequency given by percentage of total follows: Trichophyton rubrum 46.8%, T. tonsurans 33.3%, T. mentagrophytes 10.1%, Microsporum canis 4.5%, Epidermophyton floccosum 3,5%, M. gypseum and T. verrucosum both 0.7%, M. audouinii and T. terrestre both 0.1%, and T. violaceum 0.06%. No isolations of M. ferrugineum or T. schoenleinii were reported. Temporal increases were observed for frequencies of T. mentagrophytes, T. tonsurans and M. canis, and decreases occurred for frequencies of E. floccosum and T. rubrum when the data from this survey were compared by the goodness of fit test to data of the 1979 to 1981 survey. The percent of dermatophyte isolations identified as T. tonsurans correlated significantly with the percentage of blacks in cities of 100,000 or more people.