Endothrix

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (February 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Endothrix refers to dermatophyte infections of the hair that invade the hair shaft and internalize into the hair cell. This is in contrast to exothrix (ectothrix), where a dermatophyte infection remains confined to the hair surface. Using an ultraviolet Wood's lamp, endothrix infections will not fluoresce whereas some exothrix infections may fluoresce bright green or yellow-green.

While many cases of endothrix do not display the characteristics of severe inflammation seen with so many ectothrix infections, pustules and erythema can occur. However, lesions may mimic other skin conditions such as seborrheic dermatitis. On careful inspection it might be possible to find small broken hair stubs within hair follicles, but hair loss may be confined to individual hairs and it is important to search the scalp hair of suspected cases carefully to detect infections.^[1]

• James, William; Timothy Berger; Dirk Elston (2006). Andrews' Diseases of the Skin Clinical Dermatology, Tenth Edition. Saunders/Elsevier. p. 299. ISBN 0-7216-2921-0.