Background: Onychomycosis is rarely life threatening but can affect patient’s quality of life by its associated morbidity and cosmetic disfigurement that makes it an important public health problem. So the current study was undertaken to look for causes of onychomycosis including the non-dermatophytic molds that are normally considered as contaminants. Methods: A total of 100 nail samples from clinically suspected cases of onychomycosis, were processed by direct microscopy of the KOH mount followed by two sets of culture on Sabourauds’ Dextrose Agar and incubated at 25ºC and 37ºC and were examined once a week for a period of 4-6 weeks, to look for the fungal causative agent. Results: Infection was more common among males and amongst age group 21-30 years (31%). The finger nails (57%) were more commonly involved than toe nails (43%). Onychomycosis was mostly caused by molds (55%), followed by dermatophytes (15.8%) and yeasts (9.3%). Aspergillus niger and A. flavus (13% each) were the most common molds, T. verrucossum (4.6%) was the most common dermatophyte, while Candida albicans (6.5%) was the most common yeast isolated. Conclusions: There is a rising trend of non dermatophytic molds causing onychomycoses, Thus microbiologists should look for all the possible causes of superficial fungal infection.
Dermatophytoses (a fungal infection of the skin, hair and nail, usually caused by dermatophytes) constitutes an important public health problem because of its high prevalence and associated morbidity but not life-threatening. Three genera of dermatophytes are recognized based on the site and pattern of fungal invasion. Dermatophytes are the predominant pathogenic mould, but yeasts (especially Candida albicans) and non-dermatophytic moulds may also be implicated. For accurate diagnosis of dermatophytoses requires microscopic demonstration and isolation and identification by culture. This study evaluates the usefulness of microscopic technique and culture for the isolation and identification of dermatophytes from clinical samples. Thirty samples were included in this study for detection of fungal elements by both methods but sensitivity of microscopic demonstration and culture were 60.0% and 66.7% respectively. As the sensitivity of microscopic demonstration (60.0%) is almost equal to the isolation and identification rate (66.7%), requires further evaluation in large scale as its ready to use format makes the application and microscopy much easier and faster.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/kyamcj.v3i1.13658 KYAMC Journal Vol. 3, No.-1, June 2012 pp.235-238
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