Comparative study between potassium hydroxide mount and culture examinations during the treatment of dermatophytoses and candidiasis.

An evaluation of the effects of antifungal drugs can be made clinically and/or mycologically, i. e., using potassium hydroxide mount (KOH) examination and culture. We compared the results of KOH and culture together with the clinical features during the treatment of dermatophytoses and candidiasis. The results were obtained in patients with tinea pedis and tinea manuum (42 cases), tinea corporis and tinea cruris (20) and candidiasis (17).The lesions evaluated were treated with clotrimazole cream or lotion twice a day; changes in clinical features were checked every week for up to three weeks. KOH-mount and culture examinations of the specimens taken from the lesions were made simultaneously with the clinical evaluations and the results were expressed as positive (+) or negative (-). Improvement in the clinical features and mycological findings was parallel in each disease group. Furthermore, there were no statistical differences between the results of the two mycological examination methods during the time of observation. These results show that KOH-mount and culture examination are equally useful as a parameter for evaluation of the effects of antifungal drugs.