My watch list
my.chemeurope.com  
Login  

KOH test



The KOH test is a procedure in which potassium hydroxide (KOH) is used to detect fungi by dissolving human cells in a culture. The difference in cell wall composition of human cells and fungal cells allows this procedure to help distinguish the two cells. KOH denatures the proteins in the human cell; only the fungal cells remain to be seen under the microscope.

KOH test procedure:

  1. Take scraping from margin (not center) of lesion
  2. Place on clean slide
  3. Add 2-3 drops of 10% KOH in water
  4. Warm the slide (don't boil)
  5. Optional - add 1 drop of lactophenol cotton blue
  6. Add cover slip
  7. Examine immediately under high dry magnification with light microscope
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "KOH_test". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE