Dermatophyte species,microscopic and cultural examination

The dermatophytes Epidermophyton floccosum, Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. interdigitale, T. rubrum, and T. verrucosum were compared with respect to the direct microscopic examination of a clinical material and the number of colonies obtained by culture.It was found that the results of microscopy as well as of culture depended to a marked extent upon which species were the cause of the mycosis.The extremes were E. floccosum and T. mentagrophytes var. interdigitale which showed 7.5 % and 32.5 % isolates with negative microscopic findings and 45.5 % and 5.0 % isolates with 10 colonies.