Darkish brown? rash in groin area, which itches badly on & off - Pic included.

[tomsmithusa]

Hi,

I have had this darkish brown? rash in my groin area for a long time which itches badly at times & then sometimes it doesn't. I had seen a dermatologist 2 years ago, who told me to use an antifungal miconazole spray/athlete's itch cream, which didn't do much. What might it be? Any suggestions?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From your symptoms erythrasma needs to be ruled out. Erythrasma is a chronic superficial infection of the intertriginous areas of the skin. It is true that groins are affected but the typical appearance is well-demarcated, brown-red macular patches. The skin has a wrinkled appearance with fine scales.

It has to be differentiated from contact dermatitis,psoriasis,sweat dermatitis and fungal infections which may mimic it.Wood lamp examination and gram staining are the tests for its diagnosis.

So nothing can be confirmed without examination.
It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[tomsmithusa]

i also wanted to add that I am a guy. Also, I have uploaded 2 more pictures on this site -

http://photobucket.com/medphotos

I hope it's ok to include it here. This is the best I could do with my camera.
Thanks.