Table 7.

Epidemiological data for non-culture-based methods

Skin type and reference	No. of patients	% of cultures positive for:									Method(s) and target gene(s)a	Description
		M. globosa	M. restricta	M. sympodialis	M. furfur	M. slooffiae	M. obtusa	M. dermatis	M. yamatoensis	M. japonica
Healthy
308	20	100	92								Quantitative PCR targeting 26S rDNA and the ITS2 region	Healthy skin of psoriasis patients; only M. globosa and M. restricta were searched for
307	27	70	56	15		22		18.5	4	4	Nested PCR, real-time PCR targeting ITS1 and IGS1 regions	Healthy skin of seborrheic dermatitis patients
307	30	87	83	37	27	17	10	30	7	10	Nested PCR, real-time PCR targeting ITS1 and IGS1 regions	Healthy patients
295	18	44.5	61	50	11	7					Nested PCR targeting ITS1, ITS2, 5.5S rDNA	Healthy university students
Pityriasis versicolor
224	49	94	94	35	10	8	4	24.5	4	6	Nested PCR, real-time PCR targeting ITS1 and IGS1 regions	Only M. globosa was detected in scales with hyphae by direct microscopy
Seborrheic dermatitis
307	31	93.5	74	35.5	6.5	39	10	39	10	13	Nested PCR, real-time PCR targeting ITS1 and IGS1 regions	Lesional seborrheic dermatitis skin harbored 3 times more Malassezia populations than healthy skin
Atopic eczema
344	60	16	22	32	21	3		6			PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism, 26S rDNA	Mixed isolations were observed but not further analyzed; there was no significant difference between positive Malassezia cultures, isolated Malassezia species, and severity of atopic eczema
307	36	100	97	58	33	31	28	31	14	58	Nested PCR, real-time PCR targeting ITS1 and IGS1 regions	Atopic eczema skin was colonized more often than seborrheic dermatitis, pityriasis versicolor, or healthy skin
295	32	87.5	94	41	41						Nested PCR targeting ITS1, ITS2, 5.8S rDNA	M. restricta, M. globosa, and M. furfur DNAs were more commonly found in atopic eczema lesions than in controls; this was not found for M. sympodialis
298	34	30–35	45–51								qPCR targeting 26S rDNA and the ITS2 region	Only M. globosa and M. restricta were searched for; Malassezia colonized all atopic eczema patients, but the load on the head was 12.4 times higher than that on the trunk and 6.8 times higher than that on limbs
Psoriasis
308	20	98	92									No correlation of psoriasis severity with Malassezia colonization; Malassezia load on the head was 10-40 times higher than that on the trunk; M. restricta was significantly more common than M. globosa in lesional skin of the head and limb; the other Malassezia species were not individually searched for
9	22	82	96	64	18	27	18	27	14	27	IGS, ITS	No difference in detection rate of Malassezia spp. between healthy and psoriasis skin and no associations with age, gender, site, severity, or treatment; psoriasis and atopic eczema skin presented higher levels of species variability

^aITS, internal transcribed spacer; IGS, intergenic spacer.