Abstract: Objective: To detect the demodex infection in the patients with facial dermatitis by Reflectance Confocal Microscopy (RCM) and evaluate the correlation between the numbers of demodex and skin lesions. Methods: The patients with facial dermatitis considering with demodex infection were collected in the outpatient department of Dermatology. RCM was used to detect the number of Demodex folliculorum infection in skin lesions. The correlation of the numbers of demodex and skin lesions was analyzed by Spareman correlation analysis. Results: Three hundred and eight-one cases of facial dermatitis considering with demodex infection were recruted, including 83 males and 298 females. The positive rate of demodex was 74.7% in men, 72.8% in women and 72.7% in total. Spareman correlation analysis showed that the correlation coefficient between the average number of demodex infection and erythema was 0.357 (P<0.01), and 0.365 (P<0.01) with scales. Conclusion: The number of demodex folliculorum in the erythema and scales were more than other type of lesions.

Key words: facial dermatitis, demodex, reflectance confocal microscopy