Epidemiological, Clinical and Mycological Studies of Trichophytosis Gladiatorum Prevailing among Korean Judoists

Jun, Jae Bok; Choi, Sung Koan

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Since 1995, a nation-wide outbreak of trichophytosis gladiatorum has been noted among wrestlers and judoists alike in Korea. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of the illness among Korean judoists. METHOD: The epidemiological, clinical and mycological studies were performed on dermatophytosis among athlelets during all-Korea judo tournaments from April, 1999 to May, 2000. RESULTS: A total of 316 cases of trichophytosis gladiatorum were detected throughout the country. The majority of patients (204, 64.6%) were high school students, followed by judoists attending middle school (18.7%), and college and above (16.7%). The scalp was the most favorite site of the skin lesions, followed by upper extremities including hands, face, neck, trunk and legs. The right arm was affected by tinea 1.6 times more frequently than the left one; in the legs the right to left ratio was 0.6. As a whole, the lesions developed in equal frequency on each side of the body. The scalp lesions were noted in 133 patients (42.1%) : erythematous scaly patches were the most frequent, affecting 66.2% of the tinea capitis patients, followed by black dot ringworm (55.6%), alopecia (33.1%), etc. Twenty six (8.2%) of the entire trichophytosis patients had a family history. Mother, brothers, father, sisters, and aunt were said to be affected by the illness in a decreasing order of frequency. Out of 316 patients, 38 (12.0%) were culture negative and 36 (11.4%) showed a contaminant. From the remaining 242 patients (76.6%), Trichophyton tonsurans (mahogany variety) was isolated. Randomly selected 38 strains of T. tonsurans showed positive results for hair perforation and urease test. CONCLUSION: Trichophytosis gladiatorum has recently been rampaging among domestic judoists. A sustained follow-up study seems necessary to monitor the spread of T. tonsurans infection to the general population from the reservoir of judoists.