Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pityriasis versicolor does not pose a threat to life, but due to its high frequency of recurrence, accompanying cosmetic impacts, and high rate of prevalence, it has earned a place as a significant public health issue. Furthermore, the condition sometimes returns with a variety of clinical symptoms even after receiving appropriate treatment, which presents significant therapeutic hurdles for dermatologists in practice. This emphasizes the necessity of standardizing Malassezia spp. susceptibility testing in order to offer valuable insights into the resistance epidemiology of currently available antifungal medications. This could be accomplished by conducting a number of joint studies in India and other countries. Moreover, in natural systems like the human stratum corneum, the clinical significance of susceptibility results will be concurrently assessed with pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic investigations. With a focus on their distribution in various clinical specimens and in healthy controls, this study aims to address important queries regarding the involvement of Malassezia spp. in the etiology of PV.
AIM: The aim of the study was the Clinical and mycological study of pityriasis versicolor.
MATERIAL AND METHOD: This is a case-control study carried out in a hospital by the dermatology department. Patients with PV who visit the dermatology department are considered cases, while controls who appear healthy and meet inclusion criteria are men and women. For the in-person interview, a semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used. With their consent, the person was clinically assessed for the related ailment, and the investigator completed the questionnaire herself. Important information was gathered from the lab reports, which are completed as a component of the patient's care. Control groups were chosen from among the patients' onlookers, and in-person interviews were used to record their personal information.
RESULTS: 250 individuals who visited the Skin and Venereal Disease Outpatient Department and had clinical signs of PV made up the study group. A total of 270 specimens with varying body sites and 250 PV patients were examined in terms of the color of the lesions. There were 125 persons in the control group, 63 of whom were male and 62 of whom were female, who appeared to be in good health and free of skin problems. With a male to female ratio of 1.03:1, there were 150 (or 60%) male cases and 100 (or 40%) female cases out of 250 total cases. In this investigation, all three forms of pigmentations—hypo, hyper, and erythematous—were identified; hypopigmentation was the most common, accounting for 225 instances (90.0%). Hyperpigmented lesions were found in 77 (30.8%), while erythematous lesions were found only in 3 (1.2%) cases.
CONCLUSION: More research is required to determine the spread of different Malassezia species, paying particular attention to underlying illnesses and predisposing factors that may hasten the onset of PV. Since the pathogenic strains of Malassezia can create strong AhR ligands, more research is needed to understand how chemical AhR modulation affects photo-carcinogenesis and how Malassezia is related to skin carcinogenesis. Malassezia yeasts have the potential to produce fungemia, particularly in very sick preterm newborns receiving parenteral lipid emulsions. For this reason, lipid-supplemented blood culture medium containing palmitic acid are not commonly used.
KEYWORDS: Pityriasis Versicolor, Malassezia, Onychomycosis and Pigmented Lesions