BACKGROUND:

Malassezia spp is a saprophyte of the skin, related to diverse cutaneous affections, and has been reported a high frequency in patients with immunosuppression.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the prevalence of Malassezia spp in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus according to glycemic control.

MATERIAL AND METHOD:

An open, observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed in volunteer patients who participated in the 24th National March of the Patient with Diabetes in Mexico City on October 15, 2016; where preprandial capillary glycemia and glycosylated hemoglobin were taken. We took a scraping of the malar region skin to find Malassezia spp, smears stained with methylene blue.

RESULTS:

A total of 49 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were included; there were a predominance of 31 patients without glycemic control (67%) in comparison with 16 controlled patients (33%). Smears with low yeast (+) were present in 21 (59%) uncontrolled patients and in 7 (41%) controlled patients; smears with a moderate amount of yeast (++) were present in 7 (74%) uncontrolled patients and in 5 (26%) controlled patients; smears with abundant yeasts were present in 7 (63%) uncontrolled patients and in 2 (37%) controlled patients.

CONCLUSION:

In our study the prevalence of Malassezia spp in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was of 100%, with a lower number of yeasts in patients with adequate glycemic control; this can indicate that the possibility of presenting this yeast increases with bad glycemic control and probably denotes the degree of immunosuppression in these patients.

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