A HIGHER PREVALENCE OF ONYCHOMYCOSIS IN PSORIATICS COMPARED WITH NON-PSORIATICS - A MULTICENTER STUDY

There is some controversy about the prevalence of onychomycosis in pat ients with psoriasis compared to non-psoriatics. We therefore measured the prevalence of toenail onychomycosis in psoriatics and non-psoriat ics attending dermatologists' offices. None of the patients had a refe rring diagnosis of onychomycosis. The prevalence of pedal onychomycosi s in psoriatics (n = 561) was 13%. The odds of patients with psoriasis having onychomycosis was 56% greater than non-psoriatics of the same age and sex (P = 0.02), In the psoriatics, when the toenails were clin ically abnormal, the prevalence of onychomycosis was 27%. The odds of developing onychomycosis increased with age (P < 0.0001) and the odds of men developing onychomycosis was 2.5 times that of women (P = 0.000 1). The duration of psoriasis did not significantly affect the odds of developing onychomycosis. The fungal organisms recovered from psorias is subjects with onychomycosis were similar to those in the normal pop ulation with onychomycosis (P = 0.58).