Topical treatment of onychomycosis

Onychomycosis continues to be one of the more common foot problems encountered by podiatrists. Although a reliable cure is elusive, this article reviews several new agents that show some promise.

Atrial natriuretic factor in spinal cord injury

Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) concentrations were determined in matched cervical (n = 6) and thoracic (n = 7) spinal cord injured subjects in comparison to control volunteers (n = 6). In the spinal cord injury groups sampling conditions were controlled for posture, time of day, smoking status, and dietary intake. There were no between groups differences relative to age, plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone, plasma antidiuretic hormone, plasma osmolality, urine sodium or potassium excretion, or creatinine clearance. In comparison to ambulatory normals at comparable levels of sodium intake (14.4 +/- 4.8 ng/dL) both spinal cord injury groups exhibited elevated recumbent plasma aldosterone values 26.8 +/- 2.54 ng/dL (thoracic) and 20.9 +/- 4.38 ng/dL (cervical). Plasma ANF concentrations in thoracic cord injured subjects were 39.22 +/- 4.00 pg/mL and 119.5 +/- 33.40 pg/mL in cervical cord injured individuals, contrasting with normal control population values of 13.35 +/- 1.29 pg/mL. These data suggest that in the spinal cord injury state, there is either a failure of end organ response to ANF, or the ascendancy of counteracting hormonal and hemodynamic mechanisms over the effects of ANF.

The effects of ophthalmic solutions on the transmission of light through hydrogel lenses

We incubated ten different hydrogel lens materials in nine different artificial tear preparations and in cromolyn sodium (Opticrom) 4% at 35 degrees C for a period of 6 months. The subsequent ability of these hydrogel materials to transmit visible light was analyzed spectrophotometrically as a measure of each solution's compatibility with the different hydrogel materials. Ultra Tears solution was found to be significantly incompatible with four of the hydrogel materials: tetrafilcon A, deltafilcon A, phemfilcon A, and polymacon. Seven other solution/hydrogel combinations had relatively high absorbance readings that were not statistically significant. These combinations should probably be avoided. Cromolyn sodium 4% was found to be compatible with all hydrogel lens materials tested, as were the majority of artificial tear solution/hydrogel combinations. We believe that the use of the compatible solution/hydrogel combinations should produce no alteration in the ability of the hydrogel lens to transmit visible light (400-700 nm).