Microbiological diagnosis of superficial cutaneous mycoses

The etiological diagnosis of superficial mycoses is microbiological and is considered essential to establish appropriate treatment and evaluate the prognosis of the infectious process. This is particularly important in some localizations such as ungual areas. To provide the clinician with useful results, the microbiological or mycological method should be rigorously performed. For this reason, the various procedures to obtain and correctly process clinical samples with the aim of obtaining reliable results are reviewed. The utility of microscopic examination and of cultures in mycological diagnosis are examined in detail, and the systems used to identify isolated fungi are analyzed. The application of tests to study in vitro sensitivity to antifungal agents and the possibility of typing the various isolates from the same fungus, providing data for epidemiological study, are also analyzed.