Tsentemeidou A, et al. - The target of this study was to investigate the prevalence of onychomycosis among patients with nail psoriasis not being treated with immunosuppressive agents, which constituted an independent risk factor for fungal infections. Higher prevalence of onychomycosis was observed among nail psoriasis patients than the general population of Greece (15%-20%). It was discovered that yeast and moulds predominated in the infection cases of nail psoriasis patients.

Methods

• The design of this research was a cross-sectional study.
• It included all adult patients with nail psoriasis who were not receiving antifungal and/or immunosuppressive treatment.
• The enrollees belonged to the 2nd University Dermatology Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 10/2016 till 02/2017.
• If onychomycosis was clinically suspected, nail samples were collected and direct microscopy with 15% KOH solution and culture were performed.
• An estimation was carried out of the Target-NAPSI and DLQI score.

Results

• Among the 23 patients recruited, 20 were men and 3 were women, with a mean age of 53.43 years (48.25, 58.62), a mean target-NAPSI score of 10.72 (9.62, 11.77) and a mean DLQI score of 10.17 (7.46, 12.89).
• 34.78% of patients tested positive for onychomycosis.
• It was noted that yeast were isolated in 37.50% of cases, non-dermatophyte filamentous fungi in 37.50% and T. rubrum in 12.50%.