The Genetic Epidemiology Of Tinea Versicolor In China

Background Tinea versicolor ( Pityriasis versicolor, PV ) is a mild, chronic common superficial fungal infection of the skin caused by Malassezia furfur, a dimorphic saprophytic yeast that may be cultured from normal appearing skin in some of the normal population. Generally the Malassezia is non-pathogenic. However under some predisposing condition, including exogenous and endogenous, the fungus can convert from a yeast to a pathogenic mycelial form. Researches into PV have been dominated by the study of pathogenesis, treatment of PV and the Malassezia which is the causative organism of PV in the past, but a respectable growth within the field of PV epidemiology has been witnessed in the recent years. Some studies on the prevalence of PV in the general population have been carried out in the U.S.A., Europe, Africa. Although kowning high temperature and humidity is a prerequisite for disease expression, we address why one gets the disease while others apparently do not under the same circumstance. Furthermore, some positive familial cases were reported in more than one study while conjugal cases were less commonly reported. It indicates that hereditary factors seem to play a role in the disease. There are few genetic epidemiological researches on PV. The result indicates that PV seems not to be inherited in a simple Mendelian fashion, and the genetic basis appears to be multifactorial. As for its genetic model, it has not been definitely concluded at present. There are no reports of a large cohort of Chinese people with PV. The intention of our study was to review the clinical and epidemiologic profile of PV in China and to determine a possible genetic model for PV.Methods Data for 503 patients with PV were obtained by questionnaire in the First...