The 42 nail and skin specimens from 32 patients and 39 nail specimens from healthy volunteers were stored at 80 8C before
use. Part of each sample was treated with 15% KOH and 40% diethyl sulfoxide for detection of fungal elements by microscopic examination. Another part of each samples were cultured on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar containing chloramphenicol (0.05%) with cycloheximide (0.5%) at 25 8C for several days to 2 weeks, and morphological examination and sequencing were performed