RESUMEN
This study was conducted to show a higher prevalence of interdigital tinea pedis in athletes by comparing athletes and non-athletes, and to examine swimming pools as a route of infection. The subjects were 282 athletes, 137 non-athletes, and 140 students enrolled in a swimming class at the University of Tsukuba. This study included the taking of cotton-swab samples from the interdigital skin surfaces of both feet and cultures, microscopical examinations of scales collected from subjects with lesions, and questionnaires. There was a significant difference between athletes and non-athletes in the prevalence of the relevant pathogens, and a higher risk of infection was shown in athletes. The study also found that 63.6% of the swimming class students were carriers, and that 85.0% of their dermatophytes were Trichophyton mentagrophytes. In addition, dermatophytes were also isolated from the floors of the swimming pool and the public baths. The results of these controlled studies suggested that there was a significant risk of dermatophytosis in both athletes and non-athletes using the swimming pool.
Asunto(s)
Piscinas , Tiña del Pie/etiología , Adulto , Brotes de Enfermedades , Epidermophyton/aislamiento & purificación , Femenino , Pie/microbiología , Humanos , Japón/epidemiología , Masculino , Prevalencia , Factores de Riesgo , Deportes , Tiña del Pie/epidemiología , Trichophyton/aislamiento & purificación , Microbiología del AguaRESUMEN
There is a controversy on the effects of physiological levels of glucocorticoids on natural killer (NK) cytotoxity. Therefore, the effects of exogenously administered dexamethasone on NK cytotoxity in 8-week-old male, Fischer 344 rats were studied. We suppose that the reason for the controversy is insufficient sensitivity of the ordinal radioactive chromium-release assay for normal healthy subjects or animals. Therefore, we developed a new index, a resistance to artificial immunosuppressor, cyclosporine A (CsA) using rat NK activity as an indicator, and named this index, increased resistance to immunosuppressor (IRIS). After some basic, characterizing studies, authors confirmed the fact that continuous doses of dexamethasone (DEX) attenuated NK suppression of CsA. In protocol 4, 18 rats were randomly divided into three groups: the first (DEX + CsA) was injected for 5 days with 0.1 mg DEX/kg/day and a single dose of CsA on the final day, intraperitoneally; the second (SAL + CsA) was treated with an equal volume of saline and CsA; the third (DEX + SAL) was treated with DEX but not CsA. The IRIS in NK activity was increased significantly (P < 0.01) with 5 days injection of DEX. These results demonstrated that physiological, and continuous dosage of glucocorticoids stimulated IRIS in NK activity in rats, and this suggests that appropriate stimuli through the hypothalamic-adrenal axis might be acting, at least, as a defence against immune collapses or dysfunctions.