Nails Involvement in Winiwarter-Buerger Disease

Introduction: Buerger disease, or thromboangiitis obliterans, is an inflammatory and occlusive process involving small and medium size arteries and veins, which generally affects the lower limbs of young adult male with the habit of smoking. Case presentation: This paper reports 2 patients who developed nail lesions as the first sign of Buerger disease. Conclusion: Signs and symptoms of Buerger's disease are secondary to the inflammatory process and arterial occlusion which results in severe ischemia. Involvement of nails is not common, but we found 2 different clinical features which have not been previously reported in the literature: chronic paronychia, and proximal leukonychia or onycholysis and nail bed erosion

A pilot study of intralesional methotrexate injections versus triamcinolone acetonide in patients affected by nail matrix psoriasis

Nail disorders in general are difficult to treat and often frustrating, and this is also the case with nail psoriasis, especially when it is limited to the nails, and not affecting joints. The quality of life of patients with nail psoriasis is negatively affected, owing to the chronic course of the disease and frequent relapses. The purpose of this study was to compare treatment response and maintenance of response during follow-up of 12 patients with nail matrix psoriasis limited to a few nails, who were treated with intralesional injections of either methotrexate (MTX) 25 mg/mL or triamcinolone acetonide 10 mg/mL. Patients were treated every 6 weeks for 24 weeks and followed up for 6 months. Photographic documentation and assessment by Nail Psoriasis Severity Index were performed during each treatment session and at each follow-up visit. At the end of the four treatment sessions, all patients had improvement of their disease, which continued during follow-up, especially for the MTX-treated group

Recurrent Microinvasive Subungueal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a HIV Patient: a Case of Good Response to Photodynamic Therapy.

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Onychomycosis: Recommendations for Diagnosis, Assessment of Treatment Efficacy, and Specialist Referral. The CONSONANCE Consensus Project

Introduction: Onychomycosis is the most common nail disorder in adults, with high recurrence and relapse rates. Its diagnosis may be difficult by non-experts because the clinical signs may overlap with other dermatoses. The treatment may be challenging, as it should be patient-tailored. Methods: An online survey was conducted among European Nail Society (ENS) members to provide recommendations on the diagnosis and assessment of distal lateral subungual onychomycosis (DLSO) in non-specialized clinical environments, as well as recommendations for patient referral. Results: DLSO diagnosis is predominantly based on clinical aspects, and microscopy and fungal culture are commonly employed to establish the diagnosis. Assessment of clinical features is the main method for DLSO follow-up, and the main criterion to define cure is a combination of mycologic cure and clinical cure. The most commonly selected treatments for onychomycosis include oral antifungals, topical antifungals, and nail debridement. According to the nail experts, predisposing factors of DLSO to be evaluated include concurrent tinea pedis diagnosis, immunocompromised status, and diabetes. The minimum clinical aspects to be evaluated for DLSO diagnosis should include subungual hyperkeratosis, white-yellow-orange subungual scales, and absence of salmon-pink coloration. Recommendations for clinical signs that should be evaluated to confirm treatment effectiveness include normal appearance and color of the nail, reduction or absence of scales under the nail, and absence of onycholysis. Recommendations for specialist referral include lack of treatment effectiveness, need of additional therapies, concurrent presence of other diseases or comorbidities, severe DLSO, and presence of a dermatophytoma or involvement of the nail matrix. Conclusions: According to the surveyed nail experts, after evaluating clinical signs and predisposing factors for DLSO, the diagnosis should include subungual hyperkeratosis, nail color (yellow-orange), and onycholysis and thickening. In cases of severe DLSO, when there is treatment failure, concomitant diseases/comorbidities, presence of a dermatophytoma or involvement of the nail matrix, or involvement of several/all nails, referral should be considered

A Practical Algorithm for the Management of Superficial Folliculitis of the Scalp: 10 Years of Clinical and Dermoscopy Experience

Introduction: Superficial folliculitis of the scalp (SFS) is a common complaint in clinical practice, and initial presentation may be difficult to differentiate as they may appear very similar to each other. Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to describe the pathologies that occur clinically as folliculitis of the scalp, identify their causes and characteristics and create a standardized classification. Methods: This is a retrospective clinical, dermoscopic and histopathological study over 10 years of dermatologic consultations. Only individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of SFS (updated diagnostic criteria or biopsy) were included. Results: In this review, we describe the various clinical features of different causes of SFS in ninety-nine cases and divided into infectious due to fungus, bacteria, or virus and inflammatory conditions such as rosacea, acneiform eruption and Ofuji syndrome. Conclusions: The clinician must differentiate SFS from other underlying scarring disorders to prevent poorer outcomes. We created an algorithm to help the clinician reach a proper diagnosis

A survey among dermatologists: diagnostics of superficial fungal infections - what is used and what is needed to initiate therapy and assess efficacy?

BACKGROUND: Superficial fungal infections are common. It is important to confirm the clinical diagnosis by mycological laboratory methods before initiating systemic antifungal treatment, especially as antifungal sensitivity and in vitro susceptibility may differ between different genera and species. For many years, the gold standard for diagnosis of superficial fungal infections has been direct fungal detection in the clinical specimen (microscopy) supplemented by culturing. Lately, newer molecular based methods for fungal identification have been developed. OBJECTIVE: This study was initiated to focus on the current usage of mycological diagnostics for superficial fungal infections by dermatologists. It was designed to investigate whether it was necessary to differentiate between initial diagnostic tests and those used at treatment follow-up in specific superficial fungal infections. METHODS: An online questionnaire was distributed among members of the EADV mycology Task Force and other dermatologists with a special interest in mycology and nail disease. RESULTS: The survey was distributed to 62 dermatologists of whom 38 (61%) completed the whole survey, 7 (11%) partially completed and 17 (27%) did not respond. Nearly, all respondents (82-100%) said that ideally they would use the result of direct microscopy (or histology) combined with a genus/species directed treatment of onychomycosis, dermatophytosis, Candida- and Malassezia-related infections. The majority of the dermatologists used a combination of clinical assessment and direct microscopy for treatment assessment and the viability of the fungus was considered more important at this visit than when initiating the treatment. Molecular based methods were not available for all responders. CONCLUSION: The available diagnostic methods are heterogeneous and their usage differs between different practices as well as between countries. The survey confirmed that dermatologists find it important to make a mycological diagnosis, particularly prior to starting oral antifungal treatment in order to confirm the diagnose and target the therapy according to genus and species

NAil Dermoscopy in Nail Disease

The use of Dermoscopy in nail disorder (also known as 'onycoscopy' is quite recent. Initially utilised for the study of nail pigmentation, nail dermoscopy as gradually become more and more frequently used to observe other types of neoplastic and non-neoplastic neil disorders, and in the recent years several papers on 'onychoscopy' have been published

Ciclopirox Hydroxypropyl Chitosan: Efficacy in Mild-to-Moderate Onychomycosis

The severity and percentage of nail involvement are usually considered the main prognostic factors for the treatment of onychomycosis. This study investigated the efficacy of P-3051 (ciclopirox [CPX] 8% nail lacquer in hydroxypropyl chitosan technology) in a population subset of the pivotal study, selected according to the criteria used in recent onychomycosis pivotal studies. The original study was a multicenter, randomized, three-arm, placebo-controlled, parallel groups, evaluator-blinded study comparing P-3051 with reference CPX (standard, insoluble 8% CPX nail lacquer) and placebo (P-3051 vehicle) in a 2: 2: 1 ratio, applied once daily for 48 weeks to 467 patients with onychomycosis, followed by a 12-week follow up. The primary endpoint was complete cure (negative mycology and 100% clear nail) at the end of treatment. Among the secondary endpoints, response rate (negative mycology and 6590% clear nail) and negative culture were chosen as most representative for a clinical setting. A population subset (modified intention-to-treat population, 302 patients) was selected, excluding those with more severe disease (> 50% nail involvement), in line with recent onychomycosis pivotal trials. P-3051 was superior to placebo in all parameters but culture at week 60 and was superior to reference CPX in cure and response rates at week 60. Compared to the overall patient population, efficacy rates in the P-3051 group were higher in the subset excluding patients with nail involvement > 50%. Results increased by 33% (from 5.7 to 7.6%) at week 48 and by 19.0% (from 12.7 to 15.1%) at week 60 for cure rate, by 33% (from 24.0 to 31.9%) and 20% (from 28.7 to 34.5%) for response rate, and by 3% (from 89.1 to 91.6%) and 4.0% (from 79.0 to 82.4%) for culture conversion to negative. This post hoc analysis confirms that the severity of onychomycosis is a prognostic factor for responsiveness to antifungal treatments and that this can significantly affect reported efficacy data. The different inclusion criteria should be taken into account when reviewing the efficacy of antifungal agents from different studies