Erythrasma. Response to tolnaftate, an antifungal medication

Erythrasma, long regarded as a condition of fungal origin and more recently believed to be caused by bacteria on the basis of special stains and cultures, as well as by its response to antibacterial antbiotics, has been shown in a series of eight patients to respond equally well to a topically applied fungicide in the form of tolnaftate (Tinactin) as a 1% solution in polyethylene glycol. This would suggest that the classification of the causative organism, as well as the therapeutic spectrum of tolnaftate, merits further study.