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Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis

Onychomycosis is usually diagnosed symptomatically due to the very clear signs caused by the fungus on the nail surface and structure, although the growth of the infecting agent must also be verified by culture in an enriched medium. This procedure is normally lengthy (four weeks), and samples can b...

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Autores principales: Villar Rodríguez, Julia, Pérez Pico, Ana María, García Blázquez, Francisco Manuel, Morán Cortés, Juan Francisco, Mayordomo Acevedo, Raquel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10144260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37108899
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9040444
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author Villar Rodríguez, Julia
Pérez Pico, Ana María
García Blázquez, Francisco Manuel
Morán Cortés, Juan Francisco
Mayordomo Acevedo, Raquel
author_facet Villar Rodríguez, Julia
Pérez Pico, Ana María
García Blázquez, Francisco Manuel
Morán Cortés, Juan Francisco
Mayordomo Acevedo, Raquel
author_sort Villar Rodríguez, Julia
collection PubMed
description Onychomycosis is usually diagnosed symptomatically due to the very clear signs caused by the fungus on the nail surface and structure, although the growth of the infecting agent must also be verified by culture in an enriched medium. This procedure is normally lengthy (four weeks), and samples can be contaminated, delaying the prescription of appropriate and effective treatment. Only one previous study has addressed the possibility of using thermography as a diagnostic method for onychomycosis in older people (31–70 years). The present study confirms this use but in individuals aged 18–31 years with incipient mycosis and no pathological signs. Using an FLIR E60 BX camera in a study with 214 samples, we found that men had more onychomycosis than women. We observed a relation between the presence of infection and nail temperature, with a higher temperature in yeast infections (+1 °C) and a lower temperature in dermatophyte infections (−2 °C). A higher temperature by almost 1 °C was also observed in older participants. Thermography can be viewed as a new diagnostic method in asymptomatic or incipient onychomycosis, providing the thermographic camera is sufficiently sensitive and the appropriate procedure is followed, although fungal culture is always necessary to confirm recovery after treatment.
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spelling pubmed-101442602023-04-29 Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis Villar Rodríguez, Julia Pérez Pico, Ana María García Blázquez, Francisco Manuel Morán Cortés, Juan Francisco Mayordomo Acevedo, Raquel J Fungi (Basel) Article Onychomycosis is usually diagnosed symptomatically due to the very clear signs caused by the fungus on the nail surface and structure, although the growth of the infecting agent must also be verified by culture in an enriched medium. This procedure is normally lengthy (four weeks), and samples can be contaminated, delaying the prescription of appropriate and effective treatment. Only one previous study has addressed the possibility of using thermography as a diagnostic method for onychomycosis in older people (31–70 years). The present study confirms this use but in individuals aged 18–31 years with incipient mycosis and no pathological signs. Using an FLIR E60 BX camera in a study with 214 samples, we found that men had more onychomycosis than women. We observed a relation between the presence of infection and nail temperature, with a higher temperature in yeast infections (+1 °C) and a lower temperature in dermatophyte infections (−2 °C). A higher temperature by almost 1 °C was also observed in older participants. Thermography can be viewed as a new diagnostic method in asymptomatic or incipient onychomycosis, providing the thermographic camera is sufficiently sensitive and the appropriate procedure is followed, although fungal culture is always necessary to confirm recovery after treatment. MDPI 2023-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10144260/ /pubmed/37108899 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9040444 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Villar Rodríguez, Julia
Pérez Pico, Ana María
García Blázquez, Francisco Manuel
Morán Cortés, Juan Francisco
Mayordomo Acevedo, Raquel
Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title_full Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title_fullStr Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title_short Evaluation of Thermography as a Diagnostic Technique in Asymptomatic or Incipient Onychomycosis
title_sort evaluation of thermography as a diagnostic technique in asymptomatic or incipient onychomycosis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10144260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37108899
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof9040444
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