ArticleFrontiers in medicine2026
Diagnostic accuracy of fluorescence microscopy of hematoxylin-eosin-stained nail sections for onychomycosis.
Article in Frontiers in medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Onychomycosis requires laboratory confirmation before prolonged oral antifungal therapy is initiated. Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining is highly sensitive for the histopathologic diagnosis of onychomycosis but increases cost and turnaround time. This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of fluorescence microscopy of routine hematoxylin-eosin (H&E)-stained nail sections compared with PAS-stained nail sections. Methods: A diagnostic accuracy study was performed using archived nail clipping slides from patients evaluated between 2019 and 2023. Fluorescence microscopy of H&E-stained nail clippings served as the index test, while PAS-stained nail clippings served as the reference standard. Slides were randomly selected from de-identified records and independently assessed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. Results: A total of 84 slides were included, comprising 42 PAS-positive onychomycosis slides and 42 PAS-negative non-onychomycosis slides. Fluorescence microscopy showed a sensitivity of 80.95% (95% confidence interval [CI], 65.88-91.40%) and a specificity of 97.62% (95% CI, 87.43-99.94%). The PPV and NPV were 97.14% (95% CI, 85.08-99.93%) and 83.67% (95% CI, 70.34-92.68%), respectively. False-negative results were primarily associated with sparse fungal elements and yeast forms lacking pseudohyphae, while the single false-positive result was associated with fluorescent plasma globules and neutrophils. Conclusion: Fluorescence microscopy of H&E-stained nail sections exhibits high specificity and may serve as a rapid, lower-cost adjunctive diagnostic method for confirming onychomycosis, particularly in resource-limited settings where fluorescence microscopy is available.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.