To provide an adequate therapeutic effect against onychomycosis, it has been suggested that topical drugs should have two properties: drug permeability through the nail plate and into the nail bed, and retention of their antifungal activity in the disease-affected areas. Only recently has the importance of other delivery routes (such as subungual) been discussed. Efinaconazole has been shown to...

OBJECTIVE To assess the frequency of Candida in cases of onychomycosis ata tertiary care facility in an urban area. METHODS The cross-sectional study was carried out from September 2009 to July 2010 at the Department of Microbiology, Basic Medical Sciences Institute, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. It involved 124 patients, who were clinically diagnosed as cases of onychomycosis ...

An evaluation of treatment practices in 13 countries, not including the United States, has shown oral terbinafine to be more cost-effective (from a government payer perspective) than griseofulvin, itraconazole, and ketoconazole in the treatment of onychomycosis of toenails and fingernails. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and economic effects of oral griseofulvin, itracona...

Onychomycosis is a common fungal infection, afflicting some 10% of the adult population in industrialized countries. Aside from cosmetic concerns, onychomycosis can be the cause of toe and foot pain, as well as the underlying etiology for serious secondary bacterial infections and traumatic ulcerations. In select populations, such as diabetics, the latter conditions may even result in loss of a...

BACKGROUND Povidone-iodine (PVP-I) 10% aqueous solution is a well-known, nontoxic, commonly used topical antiseptic with no reported incidence of fungal resistance. We have been using a low-dose formulation of 1% PVP-I (w/w) in a solution containing dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in our clinical practice for a variety of indications. Presented here is our clinical experience with this novel formulat...

The diagnosis of onychomycosis is suggested by the clinical presentation as well as the family history and patient age. The definitive diagnosis of onychomycosis is based on (1) establishing the presence or absence of fungal elements using laboratory methods and/or (2) identifying the fungus using fungal culture or, in the future, by polymerase chain reaction as new developments emerge in this ...

Superficial white onychomycosis is characterized by opaque, friable, whitish superficial spots on the nail plate. We examined an affected halux nail of a 20-year-old male patient with scanning electron microscopy. The mycological examination isolated Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Abundant hyphae with the formation of arthrospores were found on the nail's surface, forming small fungal colonies. T...

Onychomycosis is usually caused by dermatophytes, although also other filamentous and yeast-like fungi are associated with nail invasion. Chaetomium is an environmental genus of ascomycetes exhibiting a certain degree of extremotolerance. We report the first case of onychomycosis in a 46-year-old woman in China caused by Chaetomium globosum. The patient showed yellowish black discoloration with...

Yeasts are common etiologic agents of onychomycosis. This study reported a case of onychomycosis due to Cryptococcus friedmannii (Naganishia friedmannii). This yeast was isolated of the right great toenail of 57-year-old man. Microscopic examination of nail scrapings showed budding cells with thin capsule. Sequence analyzes of the internal transcribed spacer regions was closely related to Crypt...

Yeasts cause only 5-10% of onychomycosis; the most common yeast is Candida albicans, and rarely Trichosporon spp. is found. Recently, it has become an important cause of fungemia with a high mortality rate in immunocompromised patients. Superficial infections caused by Trichosporon spp., including piedra and onychomycosis, occur in immunocompetent patients. Herein, we report a case of a fungal ...