title: Brush-culture method for diagnosing tinea capitis.
abstract: Using traditional methods to verify the existence of a fungal infection in children with suspected tinea capitis is a cumbersome process. Scraping scale and pulling hairs for culture or microscopic examination can be time-consuming and uncomfortable for the child. This study is the first comparison of this method with an alternate brush-culture method for diagnosing tinea capitis. In 70 children with symptoms suggestive of tinea capitis, there was strong agreement between methods in detecting disease or lack thereof (McNemar's test, P less than .2). In the 51 paired positive cultures, those obtained by brush culture turned positive significantly faster (t test, P less than .01) than samples obtained by the traditional method. The brush method is a reliable, painless, and more expedient way to obtain cultures from children with suspected tinea capitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk.
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Hubbard
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Triquet
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003470:Culture Media; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012535:Scalp / Q000382:microbiology*; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013997:Time Factors; D014006:Tinea Capitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000295:instrumentation; D014249:Trichophyton / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media