title: Incidence and epidemiology of onychomycosis in patients visiting a tertiary care hospital in India.
abstract: Onychomycosis is a chronic fungal infection of the nails that is largely underdiagnosed in developing countries such as India due to poor health care facilities. In this study, we evaluated the nails of 134 patients with a clinical suspicion of onychomycosis using direct microscopy and fungal culture techniques. The majority of participants (47.8%) were older than 40 years. On both direct microscopy and fungal culture, 71.6% of participants were confirmed with onychomycosis. Among the cases confirmed by laboratory testing, distal lateral subungual onychomycosis was the most common clinical pattern observed, followed by proximal subungual onychomycosis (PSO), candidal onychomycosis (CO), and white superficial onychomycosis (WSO). We concluded that laboratory examination is of great importance in the diagnosis and identification of the underlying pathogen in patients with onychomycosis as well as in the selection of a suitable antifungal agent for treatment.
authors: Department of Microbiology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. shamanth.adekhandi@gmail.com.
authors: Shamanth
authors: S
authors: Adekhandi
authors: Shekhar
authors: S
authors: Pal
authors: Neelam
authors: N
authors: Sharma
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Juyal
authors: Munesh
authors: M
authors: Sharma
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Dimri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005533:Foot Dermatoses / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D014009:Onychomycosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents