Ocorrência de onicomicose em pacientes atendidos em consultórios dermatológicos da cidade do Rio de

Summary: B ACKGROUND - Infection by dermatophytes affects 40% of the world population and represents 30% of all mycotic cuta-neous infections, onychomycosis being the most frequent disease of the nails, counting for 18 to 40% of all onychopathies.Onychomycosis is caused primarily by dermatophytes, Candida spp . and other non-dermatophyte fungi. Among the etiologic agentsthe most common are dermatophytes and especially Trichophyton rubrum . Nowadays Candida spp . can invade the distal and prox -imal nails. Onychomycosis due to non-dermatophyte fungi has been increasing in prevalence and in view of the clinical similari-ty with onychomycosis caused by dermatophytes, a laboratorial diagnosis is necessary for its differentiation.O BJETIVES - The objective of the present work is to evaluarte the occurrence of onychomycosisin the city of Rio de Janeiro.M ETHODS - Out of 2920 patients attended between January 1998 and December 1999, 1416 presented abnormalities in their nails. R ESULTS - Mycological confirmation of onychomycosis was performed in 565 patients and the estimated prevalence in the city of Riode Janeiro is 19.34%. Women were more affected than men, with a ratio of almost 2:1. The distribution according to etiologicalagent of 224 patients with onychomycosis and who presented positive culture was: dermatophytes 64.7%;