Onycomychosis due to Scytalidium spp . : A cli ni cal and epi de -

BACKGROUND: Scytalidium sp. is a fila men tous (thread-like), sapro bic fun gus which affects soil and plants. It is cur rently con si de red a pri mary patho gen of the nail. The pre va len ce of nail infec tions cau sed by this fun gus has been increa sing in recent deca des, although few publis hed stu dies have been done on its epi de mio logy. OBJECTIVE: To study cli ni co-epi de mio lo gi cal data refer ring to patients with ony chomy co sis cau sed by Scytalidium spp. at a University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. METHODS: We eva lua ted the cli ni cal and epi de mio lo gi cal data of 30 patients with ony chomy co sis by Scytalidium sp. through an obser va tio nal study of 1295 patients who under went myco lo gi cal nail tests over a period of 16 months. RESULTS: The majo rity of the patients were fema le (66.6%), with an ave ra ge age of 56.7 years. 63.3% of them were non whi te. 53.3% of the patients had atten ded ele men tary school and 36.6% refer red a family inco me of 3 to 5 mini mum wages. In 90% of cases, the toe nails were affec ted, pri ma rily with ony choly sis (18 patients), and in 66% of the cases mela nony chia was obser ved. In 43.3% of cases the disea se had pro gres sed for more than 5 years. 19 patients (63.3%) had under go ne some medi cal treat ment for their cur rent con di tion. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that nail infec tion by Scytalidium sp. is chro nic, affec ting adults, par ti cu larly fema les (2:1). Clinically the disea se resem bles der ma tophy to sis. Prevalence of the disea se in our sam ple was 4.86%, accoun ting for 26.92% of the posi ti ve tests.