Efficiency of methylene blue-mediated photodynamic therapy vs intense pulsed light in the treatment of onychomycosis in the toenails

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) or intense pulsed light (IPL) are efficient therapeutic methods in the treatment of superficial skin infections, and thus, they could be good options for onychomycosis treatment, the most common nail disorder.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 20 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Forty patients, affected with different diagnosed types of onychomycosis in nails of the first toe, were randomly divided into two groups of 20 patients to be treated by PDT or IPL.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Then, eight sessions separated by an interval of 2 weeks of a PDT protocol mediated by methylene blue (MB) and red laser diode (Periowave® , λ = 670 nm, 200 mW) or an IPL protocol based on 10 pulses/cm2 (Dye-VL-F module, Alma Lasers, λ = 500-600 nm, 10 J) were applied.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Methylene Blue, Nails, Onychomycosis and Photochemotherapy.

The authors tagged it with the keywords intense pulsed light and photodynamic therapy.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner) in 20 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2019 (Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine), a journal based in England.

More context: the Methylene blue (non-peptide stack partner) compound page, all human trials.