ABSTRACT
Following our previous study of the therapy of onychomycosis by non-thermal plasma (NTP) and nail hygiene and to obtain some prerequisite data of dermatophytes sensitivity, the dynamics of those inactivation by NTP plasma was monitored for various strains of Trichophyton iterdigitale, Trichophyton benhamiae, Trichophyton rubrum, and Microsporum canis. Three strains of each species on agar plates were exposed with plasma produced by a DC corona discharge in the point-to-ring arrangement in various time intervals. Although all strains were sufficiently sensitive to plasma action, significant differences were observed in their sensitivity and inactivation dynamics. These differences did not correlate with the species classification of individual strains, but could be assigned to four arbitrarily created types of strain response to NTP according to their sensitivity. These results indicate that the sensitivity to plasma is not an inherent property of the fungal species, but varies from strain to strain.
ABSTRACT
Onychomycosis is one of the most common nail disorders. Its current treatment is not satisfactorily effective and often causes adverse side effects. This study aims to determine the optimal conditions for non-thermal plasma (NTP) inactivation of the most common dermatophytes in vitro and to apply it in patient`s therapy. The in vitro exposure to NTP produced by negative DC corona discharge caused full inactivation of Trichophyton spp. if applied during the early growth phases. This effect decreased to negligible inactivation with the exposure applied six days after inoculation. In a group of 40 patients with onychomycosis, NTP therapy was combined with nail plate abrasion and refreshment (NPAR) or treatment with antimycotics. The cohort included 17 patients treated with NPAR combined with NTP, 11 patients treated with antimycotics and NTP, and 12 patients treated with NPAR alone. The combination of NPAR and NTP resulted in clinical cure in more than 70% of patients. The synergistic effect of NPAR and NTP caused 85.7% improvement of mycological cure confirmed by negative microscopy and culture of the affected nail plate. We conclude that NTP can significantly improve the treatment of onychomycosis.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM: The city of Ostrava and its surroundings belong to the most long-therm polluted areas in the Czech Republic and Europe. For identification of health risk, the World Health Organization recommends a theoretical estimation of increased short-term PM10 concentrations effect on hospital admissions for cardiac complaints based on a 0.6% increase per 10 µg.m-3 PM10 and 1.14% increase for respiratory causes. The goal of the present study is to verify the percentage increase of morbidity due to cardiovascular and respiratory causes, as per WHO recommendations for health risk assessment, in the population of Ostrava. METHOD: The input data include data on PM10 air pollution, meteorological data, the absolute number of hospital admissions for acute cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in the period 2010-2012. To examine the association between air pollution and health outcomes the time series Poisson regression adjusted for covariates was used. RESULTS: A significant relationship was found between the cardiovascular hospital admissions (percentage increase of 1.24% per 10 µg.m-3) and values of PM10 less than 150 µg.m-3 in the basic model, although after adjustment for other factors, this relationship was no longer significant. A significant relationship was also observed for respiratory causes of hospital admissions in the basic model. Contrary to cardiovascular hospitalization, the relationship between respiratory hospital admissions and PM10 values below 150 µg.m-3 (percentage increase of 1.52%) remained statistically significant after adjustment for other factors. CONCLUSIONS: The observed significant relationship between hospital admissions for respiratory causes was consistent with the results of large European and American studies.
