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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Pityriasis versicolor (PV) is a common health problem caused by genus Malassezia. Identification of Malassezia spp. has been carried out mostly through morphological and biochemical analyses. Various molecular biological techniques are being preferred as they are species-specific, more accurate and less time-consuming. The purpose of this study was to identify Malassezia species on the skin of patients with pityriasis versicolor and healthy individuals. Also, antifungal susceptibility testing was performed on the isolated Malassezia species. A case-control study including 100 individuals; 50 clinically suspected pityriasis versicolor patients attending Mansoura University Hospitals, Egypt and 50 healthy control individuals, was carried out. Characterization of Malassezia species was performed phenotypically by conventional, culture-based methods, biochemical tests, and automated system. In addition, genomic DNA was extracted from isolated colonies for PCR amplification of the highly conserved 26S rDNA region with further species level identification by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism using Hha1 and FOK1 enzymes. The association of Malassezia species with epidemiological profile and clinical characteristics were evaluated. A 84% of PV samples and 10% of control samples were positive by potassium hydroxide (KOH) while 78% of PV samples and 18% of control samples yielded growth in culture with statistical differences (p<0.001, for both methods). By phenotypic methods, isolates from patients were identified as: M. furfur (87.2%), and M. globosa, (7.7%), while in healthy controls: M. furfur (77.8%), and M. globosa, (11.1%). ByPCR-RFLP technique, M. furfur (89.7%), and M. globosa (10.3%), while in healthy controls: M. furfur (88.9%), and M. globosa, (11.1%). The highest proportion of sensitivity of Malassezia was detected to flucytosine, micafungin, caspofungin, voriconazole (100%) in both cases and control. Malassezia furfur and Malassezia globosa are the commonly encountered species in both PV patients and healthy human skin. PCR-RFLP method is considerably accurate technique in the identification of Malassezia species.