Clinical study of twenty‐nail dystrophy in Korea

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Twenty-nail dystrophy (TND) is an idiopathic and non-congenital nail dystrophy that is characterized by excess longitudinal ridges and loss of luster in multiple nail plates. There are a few studies on TND. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In order to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with TND in Korea, a retrospective study was performed. Eighty-eight patients were diagnosed with TND from February 1, 2003, to April 30, 2010. RESULTS: In this study, morphology of TND was clinically divided as atrophic, hypertrophic, pitting dominant, shallow fissure-dominant, and deep fissure-dominant types. The patients consisted of 33 males and 55 females. The proportions of subtype and gender predominance showed differences between the child-adolescent-onset TND (20 cases) and the adult-onset TND (68 cases). CONCLUSION: The clinical data of this study contribute to our understanding of TND.