{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]],"date-time":"2026-09-26T18:28:29Z","timestamp":1790447309635,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]],"date-time":"2025-10-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761696000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Healthcare Group\u2019s Centre for MedTech & Innovation and National Health Innovation Centre Joint MedTech Grant 4","award":["CMTi-NHIC4-22-01-07"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CMTi-NHIC4-22-01-07"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medical Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Superficial fungal skin infections are common but often misdiagnosed, which may result in inappropriate treatment and the worsening of symptoms. An accurate and timely diagnosis is essential to differentiate these infections from similar conditions such as secondary syphilis, annular psoriasis, and pityriasis rosea. This single-centre prospective cohort study at the National Skin Centre, Singapore, evaluated the diagnostic agreement between direct microscopy and fungal culture. Between August and December 2022, 268 skin scrape samples were collected from 149 patients with suspected fungal infections. Microscopy identified 67 (25.0%) positives, while fungal culture detected 42 (16.7%) positives. Among the 252 samples tested with both methods, 213 (84.5%) showed concordant results (\u03ba = 0.487, p &lt; 0.0001), a finding that indicates moderate agreement. The most commonly cultured organisms were Trichophyton rubrum and T. mentagrophytes. Our findings suggest that both microscopy and fungal culture may be performed to prevent true-positive cases from being missed. However, in cases where cost is a concern, microscopy can be selected as an initial diagnostic tool. Should microscopy be negative in cases with high clinical suspicion for fungal infection or when empirical treatment fails, culture remains a valuable follow-up test. These findings support a stepwise diagnostic approach\u2014using microscopy first, then followed by culture when necessary\u2014to improve diagnostic accuracy while enabling timely treatment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medsci13040247","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]],"date-time":"2025-10-29T04:26:29Z","timestamp":1761711989000},"page":"247","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["A Prospective Cohort Study Comparing Microscopy and Culture in the Diagnosis of Superficial Fungal Skin Infections"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Amelia Yuting","family":"Monteiro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore 169857, Singapore"},{"name":"National Skin Centre, Singapore 308205, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hui Mei","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Skin Centre, Singapore 308205, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Larissa","family":"Lim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"A*Star Skin Research Labs (A*SRL), Singapore 138648, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiun Yit","family":"Pan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Skin Centre, Singapore 308205, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2551-9362","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kun","family":"Liang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"A*Star Skin Research Labs (A*SRL), Singapore 138648, Singapore"},{"name":"Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 308232, Singapore"},{"name":"Skin Research Institute of Singapore, Singapore 308232, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8894-6711","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hong Liang","family":"Tey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Skin Centre, Singapore 308205, Singapore"},{"name":"Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 308232, Singapore"},{"name":"Skin Research Institute of Singapore, Singapore 308232, Singapore"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"77","DOI":"10.3314\/jjmm.46.77","article-title":"Superficial Fungal Infections Seen at the National Skin Centre, Singapore","volume":"46","author":"Tan","year":"2005","journal-title":"Nippon Ishinkin Gakkai Zasshi"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kruithoff, C., Gamal, A., McCormick, T.S., and Ghannoum, M.A. (2024). 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Assoc."}],"container-title":["Medical Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3271\/13\/4\/247\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]],"date-time":"2025-10-29T04:59:14Z","timestamp":1761713954000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-3271\/13\/4\/247"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]]},"references-count":16,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["medsci13040247"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/medsci13040247","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-3271"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2076-3271","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]]}}}