[Dermatophyte species isolated from patients prediagnosed as onychomycosis and the value of fungal culture].

In this study, the clinical specimens taken from 390 patients who were prediagnosed as onychomycosis have been investigated by direct microscopy and culture methods, in the Mycology Unit of Central Laboratory of Kocaeli University Medical Faculty. Twenty-one (41.2%) of the 51 microscopically positive samples revealed positive cultures for dermatophytes, whereas 32 (9.4%) samples were culture positive among the 399 samples which were microscopically negative. The most frequently isolated dermatophyte was found to be Trichophyton rubrum (73.6%), followed by Trichophyton mentagrophytes (24.5%) and Microsporum canis (1.9%).