Superficial Fungal Skin Disease Flashcards
What is this?
Dermatophytosis
What kind of organism is fungi? How does it intake nutrients? How do they reproduce? What do the cell walls contain?
What are the 3 morphological forms of fungi?
What is Malassezia?
Species of yeast - a unicellular budding fungus
Define “dermatophytosis”
Infection of hair, claw or stratum corneum by a fungus of the arthorodermataceae family
How are dermatophytes classified? List the classifications
Based on ecology
Zoophilic - affect higher animals
Geophilic -adapted for soil habitation
Anthropophilic - adapted for infection of man
What is the dermatophyte species primary affecting cats?
M. canis
What is the dermatophyte species primarily affecting cattle?
T. verrucosum
What species are adapted for infection of horses?
T. equinum
(M. gypseum, M. canis)
What is (by far) the most prevalent species of dermatophyte (US and UK)?
M. canis (US and UK)
T. mentag (US and UK)
M. gypseum (US)
What types of animals are predisposed to dermatophytosis?
Young animals
Long haired cats predisposed
High incidence of M. canis in Yorkshire terriers
High incidence of sylvatic dermatophytosis in Jack Russels
What does “sylvatic” mean?
Picked up from wild animals
How does dermatophytosis cause disease?
Contact with infected hair or squame
Adherence of conidia to corneocytes
Germination of spore
What parts of the skin (layers of epidermis) does fungus invade and what kind of host response does it cause?
Invasion between or through corneocytes of stratum corneum or hair (exoprotein production)
Host inflammatory/immunological response
What is this?
What is this?
How common is dermatophytosis in dogs?
Uncommon
If it looks like ringworm, its probably staphylococcal folliculitis
Can you tell what this lesion is just by looking?
No - cannot tell without sampling
What are the top differentials for this patient?
Dermatophytosis (ringworm)
Demodicosis
Describe this lesion. What are the top differentials?
Dermatophytosis (diagnosed in this case on microscopy - found fungus)
Epithelial lymphoma
Well distributed inflammatory plaques with scaling and patchy hair loss
What is this lesion? Describe this lesion.
Kerion - lesion that develops as a result of ringworm, fungus and cutaneous bacteria mixing with
Nodular, bloody puss-filled lump
What is this type of lesion called (shape)? What is it caused by?
Annular lesion (circular with healing center) caused by ringworm (cat)
Describe the clinical signs associated with dermatophytosis
How are clinical signs often hidden by animals?
Clinical signs are variable
Circular/annular lesions with scaling/crust/erythema (advancing) and alopecia
Diffuse scaling
Nodules/Ulceration
Asymptomatic (carriers)
Can be hidden by long hair (need to either clip or check under the hair coat for full extent of lesions)
What is this lesion? How is it contracted? How do you know?
Sylvatic dermatophytosis (from wildlife source)
Note - Jack Russell Terrier (rodent hunters) - interact with wildlife often
What is the name of the species of dermatophytosis contracted from hedgehogs (pictured)
Dermatophytosis caused by T. erinacei (hedgehog)
How does sylvatic dermatophytosis often present?
Folliculitis/Furunculosis
What is unusual about M. persicolor dermatophytosis?
Does not invade the hair follicle/hair shaft (no folliculitis, no furunculosis, just causes scales)
What do you need to make sure to do after clipping one animal before clipping another with the same tools?
Need to make sure to disinfect the clippers to not transfer skin conditions from one animal to another
Which disinfectant is particularly good for fungi?
Hypochlorite bleach
What is this?
What are these 2 conditions? Describe the lesions? How do they differ? Why is it so easy to get them mixed up?
Left - severe inflammatory lesions with relative central healing and advancing border of inflammation at the periphery
- Condition worsens with steroids
Right - involvement of nasal planum, presence of studded crusts
- Condition improves with systemic prednisone
Tendency for facial dermatophytosis to be misdiagnosed as autoimmune disease (like pemphigus)
What are these 2 conditions? How can you tell? Describe the lesions
How do you finally diagnose these lesions?
Left - circular lesions with peripheral rim of inflammation/crust and central post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
- Not ringworm, but rather Pyoderma
Right - ring-like lesion with ring of scale, but less defined. Also has post-inflammatory central hyperpigmentation
- Ringworm!
Needs to be tested to differentiate
What are your top differentials for this patient?
Dermatophytosis (ringworm)
Superficial staphylococcal pyoderma
What is interesting about this fungal lesion in this cat?
Very little-to-no inflammation
Fungi adapted in cats (should be on differentials list)
How is an infection coming from within vs. from the environment going to differ in symmetry of the lesions?
From within is usually symmetrical lesions
From the outside (landing on the skin) not expected to be asymmetrical
What is the name for this lesion? Describe what is happening here.
What is your job to figure out as the veterinarian?
Pseudomycetoma - nodule with sinus tracts and tissue grains/sulfur grains (yellow grains)
Fungus gets into the fat (Aberrant)
Job as vet is to figure out what is causing this (could be bacteria, fungi, neoplasia, etc.)
How is dermatophytosis diagnosed?
Based on demonstrating fungi in host tissue through:
- Skin scrapings/hair plucks
- Wood’s lamp
- Fungal culture
- Skin biopsies
- PCR (newer option)
What is this microscopically demonstrating?
What is this an immediate diagnosis of?
Fungal spores in hair shaft (commonly produced on external aspect of the hair)
Immediate diagnosis of ringworm
Based on these sensitivity statistics, is light microscopy diagnosis of fungal infection worth doing?
While sensitivity is ~50% for experienced pathologists and <50% for “common” practitioners, it is still worth doing because when you do diagnose based on microscopy it is a definitive diagnosis
Can always send out for more sensitive testing if you are unsure
How can you improve the sensitivity of microscopy? What is a (minor) issue with fluorescence microscopy?
Fluorescence microscopy - add weight to potassium hydroxide, look under UV microscopy, fungi glow green
Much easier! But not routinely found all over the world
How does a woods lamp work? Where on the body does fungi fluoresce under the wood lamp? What lighting do you need for wood’s lamp to work? Which species of fungi does not fluoresce with wood’s lamp?
HAIR - Wood’s lamp turns fungi apple-green on haircoat
Irrelevant on skin as debris can turn green
Must have darkened room, lamp needs to be warmed up
What should you do to diagnose fungi if wood’s lamp examination is negative, but you still suspect dermatophytosis?
Trichophyton spp. of veterinary importance do not fluoresce
Need to follow up with culture
How sensitive is wood’s lamp for isolating dermatophytosis in cats/dogs (Ex. M. canis)
What is the most sensitive test you can use for diagnosing dermatophytosis?
Culture
How do you perform fungal culture? How and where do you send the sample?
What is the typical fungal culture medium? Why is cycloheximide added in? Why is chloramphenicol added in?
Sabouraud’s dextrose agar - typical culture medium
Cycloheximide added in to inhibit growth of other fungi in environment
Chloramphenicol added in to inhibit growth of bacteria
At what temperature and how long do you incubate fungal culture?
At what intervals do you receive a report about fungal culture growth?
2 weeks (or sooner) - interim report to tell us if there is something growing
4 weeks - full assessment (final report)
How long after starting fungal culture is growth typically evident?
5 - 10 days after starting culture
How is fungal culture assessed? What methods are preferable for assessing fungi (vs bacteria)?
What kind of lab should you make sure to use for testing?
For fungi preference is to assess phenotype, gross colony and microscopy rather than biochemical testing/MALDITOF (commonly used for bacteria)
Use reputable mycology lab!!!
What is this? What is it used for?
Denman brush - good way of doing brush culture, particularly looking for asymptomatic carriers or animals with widespread lesions to inoculate SDA plates
What is this? How is it produced? What is this used for in the laboratory? What IS produced by dermatophytes on the animal instead?
Macroconidia - ONLY produced in laboratory culture
Spores never produced by dermatophytes in an animal
ONLY used for laboratory identification
Hyphae and spores are produced on an animal