Onychomycosis (trichophyton mentagrophytes) A scanning electron microscopic observation

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Abstract
Nails from 4 patients infected with dermatophytes were investigated with the scanning EM [SEM] to gain insight into the spatial arrangements of the dermatophytes within the nail. Fungal hyphae were detected in nails of all 4 patients. A toenail from 1 patient infected with T. mentagrophytes was more extensively studied; the results were presented. Light microscopic observations with bright field illumination and Nomarski interference contrast confirmed the dermatophytic infection. Fungal hyphae found with the SEM distally on the ventral part of the toenail showed typical T. mentagrophytes structures and the comparison with cultured material clearly demonstrated the correspondence in morphology and size. Besides the fine structural morphology of the invasion of fungal hyphae into the nail plate between the horny cells and/or directly into corneocytes, tunnel-like holes were observed in paraffin embedded sections after removal of the paraffin. SEM, with its enormous focal depth, yielded far more information than light microscopic techniques about the 3-dimensional behavior of dermatophytes in the nail.

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