Korean J Dermatol.  1995 Jun;33(3):467-473.

Comparative Study for METHODSfor Diagnosing Onychomycosis

• Lee JS
• Lee KH

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Onychomycosis is very common nail problem, so an in xpensive, quick and sensitive test is essential for screening nail specimens. Recently, there is a report of new method for diagnosing onychomycosis u.;ing KOH treated nail clippings which vri then crushed and finally stained with periodic acid-Schifft(PAS) stain (KONCPA).
OBJECTIVE
We evaluate the susefulness of the new methods using KOH treated nail clippings and nail debris which were then crushed and finally stained with FS (KONPA) or chlorazol black E(KONBE), for the diagriosis of onychomycosis.
METHODS
We compare different methods for diagnosing onychonycisis such as KOH stains, fungal cultures, histologic evaluation, SEM, KONCPA, KONBE, and KOHJPA.
RESULTS
KONPA was proved to be more effective indentifying uiigal hyphae in comparison with conventional KOH nail scraping preparation, fungal culture, and FONBE. The positive rates of each method were 74%, 46%, 43%, and 63%, respectively. Also, KENPA proved to be more rapid and easy to perform in cotnparison to the histologic evaluation of tiail clippings and SEM.
CONCLUSION
KONPA is a sensitive, quick, and readily available teled for use in clinical settings in cases that are highy siispected to be onychomycosis clinicaly, but show negative results using conventional methods

Keyword

Onychomycosis; Eiagnostic methods; PAS stain; KOH

MeSH Terms

Coloring Agents
Hyphae
Mass Screening
Onychomycosis*
Coloring Agents