Protothecosis

Protothecosis

Infections and infestations affecting the nail

Published in Eckart Haneke, Histopathology of the NailOnychopathology, 2017

Although protothecosis is due to algae that are distinct from fungi, this disease is usually dealt with in Chapter 4.6 on fungal infections as the algae grow on Sabouraud agar. Prototheca are saprophytes growing in soil, water, and on decaying plants. Occasionally, domestic animals are affected. Protothecosis is seen in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed hosts.380 It develops when a wound gets in contact with water or even by direct inoculation from a splinter on which algae grew. Skin lesions are uncharacteristic and usually appear as small papules and plaques that tend to become papillomatous and verrucous and may even ulcerate. Subungual protothecosis clinically resembles onychomycosis.381

Endemic mycoses: epidemiology and diagnostic strategies

View Article

Journal Information

Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2020

Andrés Tirado-Sánchez, Gloria M. González, Alexandro Bonifaz

Differential diagnosis of talaromycosis includes histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, tuberculosis, sporotrichosis, nontuberculous mycobacterial infections, molluscum contagiosum, cutaneous amebiasis, Kaposi’s sarcoma, protothecosis, pneumocystosis, leishmaniasis, and toxoplasmosis [97,99].

Explore chapters and articles related to this topic

Infections and infestations affecting the nail

Endemic mycoses: epidemiology and diagnostic strategies