SKIN FLORA MAPS - TOOL IN STUDY OF CUTANEOUS ECOLOGY

[摘要] Skin sites (162 and 175) were sampled from a patient with severe atopic dermatitis and a healthy subject, respectively, and maps of the 2 individuals depicting the density and distribution of aerobic cutaneous flora over the entire body were constructed. All isolates of Micrococcaceae were biotyped. Neither the density nor the kinds of microorganisms were homogeneously arrayed. The separate types of flora were skewed in distribution, tending to segregate on large anatomical regions, and inhabiting overlapping territories. No 2 sites were exactly alike in their carriage of microorganisms. Many of the apparently normal skin sites of the eczema patient carried high numbers of Staphylococcus aureus, often the dominant organism. Skin flora maps are potentially useful especially in studying the dynamics of cutaneous microbial populations.