Nuevas técnicas para el diagnóstico y tratamiento de alteraciones ungueales

Abstract

Nail disorders are one of the most frequent reasons for visiting the podiatry clinic.Currently, the diagnosis is conducted in an empirical manner dependent on symptoms and signs which are common in several pathologies. The complementary tests, which could confirm the diagnosis, are seldom used due to their low sensibility, their invasive effect, their lengthly period of time involved, or their highly economic costs. Other complementary tests are necessary in order to be more accurate with the diagnosis of these pathologies, as well as, they should be easy to be incorporated in the podiatry clinic to be able to carry out the choice of the most appropriate treatment correctly. Firstly, we set out the development of a rapid and sensitive technique, based on molecular biology, to confirm the diagnosis of nail fungus, comparing the results with the traditional microbiological culture that takes three weeks. Secondly, we diagnosed the second most frequent nail pathology, that it is nail psoriasis, by using the ELISA technique in order to quantify the beta-defensin 2 in plasma, a peptide which is found in elevated levels in patients with psoriasis On the other hand, the treatments currently used in this field require a great deal of time. For this reason, they have a high rate of abandonment. In this respect, we carried out a clinical trial to measure the effectiveness of the laser treatment since it is a quick and simple method which could improve the patients� adherence to the treatment.