Study of Clinically Suspected Onychomycosis in a Podiatric Population

Abstract

Onychomycosis, by definition, is a mycotic infection of the keratinized tissue of the nail plate. Although it is commonly considered to be caused by one of the dermatotropic fungi, a variety of other organisms have been implicated as etiologic agents in the disease, including some bacteria and yeasts. When it is caused by a fungus, any or all of three types of organisms can be involved: dermatophytes, yeasts, and nondermatophyte organisms. The purpose of this study was to identify the microorganisms found in fungal cultures of clinically suspected onychomycosis in the patient population of the Foot Clinics of New York in New York City, the largest foot clinic in the world. Of the 1,800 medical charts reviewed, 214 had culture results, of which 120 were positive. Trichophyton rubrum was the most prevalent pathogen, found in 67% of positive cultures. The most remarkable risk factor was age, with 80% of affected individuals older than 35 years. False-negatives may account for the high percentage (44%) of negative cultures in this study.

Evaluating de Bruijn Graph Assemblers on 454 Transcriptomic Data

“…We sequenced the transcriptome of Trichophyton rubrum by 454 and got 317,624 reads. Trichophyton rubrum is a fungus that causes human skin infections worldwide [29], [30], [31], of which the genome has not been completely revealed (Dermatophyte Comparative Sequencing Project, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, http://www.broadinstitute.org/) and the transcriptomic catalogue has not been finished. Such a dataset is a practical example showing the relative performance of de Bruijn graph assemblers for transcript reconstruction based on 454 reads without reference genome.…”

Electrophoretic molecular karyotype of the dermatophyte Trichophyton rubrum

“…Trichophyton rubrum is a cosmopolitan filamentous fungus that can infect human keratinized tissue (skin, nails and, rarely, hair), and is one of the most frequently encountered dermatophytes (Costa et al, 2002;Jennings et al, 2002;Monod et al, 2002). This pathogen, which normally causes well-characterized superficial infections, also produces skin infections in unusual parts of the body in immunodepressed patients (Squeo et al, 1998;Sentamilselvi et al, 1998;Smith et al, 2001).…”

A Suggested Pathogenic Role for Trichosporon montevideense in a Case of Onychomycosis in a Japanese Monkey

“…Although it is commonly considered to be caused by the dermatophytic fungi, a variety of other organisms have been implicated as etiologic agents in the disease [7].…”