Background: Dermatophytoses are the most common of the superficial fungal infections. Tinea capitis is a superficial fungal infection that predominantly affects the pediatric population. It is common in tropics and may present in epidemic proportions in areas with high rates of humidity.  The clinicoepidemiological and mycological aspects of this tinea capitis infection were studied in a tertiary care centre in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Materials & Methods: One hundred sixty patients with positive KOH microscopy were underwent detailed history regarding age, sex, duration and progression of disease socioeconomic status and clinical symptoms and findings were recorded in specifically predesigned proforma. In addition to this a history of similar disease in past, in the family, history of comb sharing, oil application and association with pets was also evaluated.

Results: Most common symptom in the present study was scaling, reported in 94.9% of the patients followed by itching, hair loss, and papules in 78.4%, 69.6%, and 31.6% of the patients respectively. Among the patients with localized scalp involvement, vertex was the most common site involved in 40 (25%) of the patients followed by parietal, occipital, temporal and frontal in 26 (16%), 18(11%), 06(3.7%) and 06 (3.7%) patients respectively.

Conclusion: Grey patch is the most common variant of T capitis. T. violaceum is the most common isolate in all the clinical variants of T capitis in North eastern part of India. Anthropophilic species are responsible mainly for non inflammatory variants and zoophilic species for inflammatory variants. Intra-familial and animal contacts are major source of the source of infection.

Keywords: Tinea capitis, Dermatophytosis, Clinical features, Mycological study.

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Dr Bibhuti Bhushan

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