The relevant literature does not contain detailed numerical data about skin tags. We found 46% skin tag carriers in 750 unselected persons (25% males and 21% females). The risk of getting skin tags increases with age. The age of 50, however, seems to be a turning point, at which a stagnation of the increase is observed. The majority of the carriers had no more than 3 tags per localization; the most frequent localization was the axilla, followed by the neck. This study supplies objective data for the evaluation of skin tags as markers for colonic polyps and may provide standard values for future studies.

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Only few reports exist about the occurrence of brittle nails. We examined 1,584 persons with respect to the incidence of this anomaly. The patients were from five different groups: outpatients of a dental clinic, blood donors, residents of an old people’s home, patients of a clinic for internal diseases and patients of a general practice. Approximately 20% of the subjects examined had brittle nails. Women suffered from brittleness of nails much more frequently than men (27 vs. 13%) with a ratio of men to women from 1:1.6 to 1:7 depending on age. 44% of the subjects affected (75% of the females, 25% of the males) had tried one or several treatments but only 26% believed in their curative effect. The market for the therapy of brittle nails in the FRG is estimated to be between 2 and 4 million people.