<b>Occurrence of the onychomycosis in Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascihealthsci.v27i2.1425

Abstract

Onychomycosis are fungal infections that reach the nails and affect about 30% of the population. Recently has been observed increase of these infections and also alterations in its etiology. The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of these mycosis and profile of the patients attacked in Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil. Between January 1999 to June 2003 were analyzed at the Mycological Laboratory from the Teaching and Research Laboratory in Clinical Analyses (Lepac) a total of 435 samples of patients with clinical symptoms of onychomycoses. Of those samples 74,25% (N=323), were positive, being 15,48% confirmed by direct examination (N=50), 20,43% by culture exclusively (N=66) and 64,09% by direct examination plus culture (N=207). Females were more affected than males (72,67% and 28,33%) respectively and the higher prevalence was in patients more than 40 years old. Toenails were more frequently infected than fingernails (65,90% and 34,10%) respectively. Yeasts were isolated in 52,17% of nail samples analysed, specially from finger nails. Filamentous fungi were isolated mainly from toenails. The dermatophytes and Non-dermatophytes filamentous fungi (NDFF) were responsible for 33,85% and 13,97% of cases respectively