Mykologisches Labor

Abstract

The clinical presentation of fungal infections of the skin, hair, or nails may be varied and confusing. To avoid delays in treatment and early spread of the infection, adequate diagnostics are necessary. This requires both the clinical expertise of the physicians as well as the capability to perform various laboratory tests. Classical methods are based on microscopy, different culture procedures, and histological examination. Genotypic approaches for the detection and identification of fungal pathogens have improved the speed and accuracy of laboratory diagnosis in the last few years, although further evaluation using molecular biology-based methods should be routinely applied in practice.

Confocal laser scanning microscopy as a new valuable tool in the diagnosis of onychomycosis – comparison of six diagnostic methods

“…9,10 The development of optimised antimycotic therapy regimens stresses the need for accurate diagnosis and species differentiation, especially in therapy refractant and recurrent disease. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Hitherto existing diagnostic methods include KOH preparation, dermatophyte culture, PCR, and histopathology with PASstaining, 18 but they all share certain drawbacks in terms of sensitivity or specificity, time delay, or costintensity and effort. [19][20][21][22][23] Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) offer a quick and non-invasive view of the patients nail in real-time.…”