that's Tinea versicolor caused by M furfur how to differentiate it from vitiligo ? gently scrape it and then look carefully with a magnifying glass in good light ( light that mimicks daylight )....u will see fine scales. This is called the 'scratch sign' or 'Besnier's sign' Occassionally, lesions may be variously colored as reddish brown, dark brown or black and hence the name versicolor i.e variously colored. under wood's lamp they would fluoresce - golden yellow ....can't help it, that's what the books say P: scraping the scales and then mounting in 10 % KOH is more than enough to confirm the diagnosis 'spaghetti and meatballs' appearance spaghtti = hyphae and meatballs = spores Now the above specimen is stained with PAS, but u can see it without staining as well....just scrape the lesion, with a glass slide, then stick a cello tape over the lesion, pour some kOH over a glass slide and stick the cello tape over it (it now contains the scales from the lesion) and observe under microscope Prescribe topical ketoconazole body shampoo and call back in 3 weeks. Also advice loose clothing...if lesions persist after 3 weeks, then systemic antifungals.
