A 1-year study was conducted on 151 patients with finger- or toenail d
isease attending a dermatology clinic in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Nail scrapings and or clippings were collected and investigated with
a KOH preparation for direct microscopy and cultured for fungi. Eighty
-nine (59%) patients were females. Most females (62%) presented with f
ingernail disease while in men the toenails were involved in 76%. Fung
i were isolated in 78 (52%) of all cases and the fingernails were more
commonly positive than toenails. Of the 78 isolates, 49 (63%) were ye
asts, including eight Candida species, dermatophytes accounted for 22
(28%) and seven (9%) were other moulds. Non-dermatophyte moulds consti
tuted 20% of male isolates but only 4% of female isolates. Eighty-one
per cent of Candida species were from fingernails, while 87% of all th
e dermatophytes were from toenails.