Wood lamp white-yellow glow. Wood's lamp - application in dermatology

Wood's lamp, Wood's apparatus, diagnosis of skin diseases with black light

Wood's lamp

general characteristics

Currently, skin diseases caused by various pathogenic microorganisms are widespread. Many of them are transmitted to humans through contact with pets, such as ringworm. A prerequisite for successful treatment is

Correct and timely diagnosis. However, it is impossible to detect and classify the microflora with the naked eye. This requires special laboratory equipment and chemicals. One of the effective and affordable ways to make a diagnosis is a black light lamp (Wood's lamp). Diagnosis of dermatophytosis using ultraviolet sources is by far the most efficient and convenient way.

Unlike biochemical methods, ultraviolet diagnostics allows you to get results in a matter of seconds. The principle of operation is that the waste products of some fungi cause a bright glow under the influence of the Wood's Lamp. A special magnifying glass with ultraviolet illumination allows you to determine data on the condition of the skin by its glow.

Wood's lamp got its name in honor of an American physicist who studied optical filters that transmit only ultraviolet rays. The device, depending on the modification, emits waves with a wavelength of 368-371 nm using mercury lamps. Due to the presence of a special lens, the area under study is enlarged, which increases the efficiency of diagnostics.

Diagnosis is carried out on clean skin. To protect the eyes of the patient and the doctor from damaging radiation, direct exposure to ultraviolet radiation is excluded. The distance between the device and the skin surface should be at least 15 - 20 cm, the duration of exposure should not exceed 2 minutes. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation can lead to the development of hyperpigmentation and burns. The result obtained is compared with the data of a special table.

A light blue glow indicates normal healthy skin, an intense blue color indicates increased dryness of the skin. Purple is a sign of sensitive skin. You can recognize inflamed areas of tissue by the white color of the glow, however, if it is barely visible, then there is a high probability of ordinary contamination. Brown light occurs in the presence of pigment, which is used in the diagnosis of depigmentation and hypopigmentation, and green or yellow-green light in fungal skin lesions.

Multicolored lichen gives a dull yellow glow, erythrasma - pink or red, favus - light silver, microsporia - yellow-green (emerald) fluorescent, favus-white-silver, erythrasma - pink, brick-red glow, pityriasis versicolor - yellow or brown luminescence, rubrophytia - coral-red luminescence, lupus erythematosus - white or cloudy-white luminescence, leukoplakia - green luminescence, cancer - red luminescence, KPL - yellow-brown luminescence, leptotrichosis - yellow luminescence, candidiasis - snow-white luminescence, coccal flora - violet glow, cocci + candida - orange glow, vitiligo - depigmentation is more pronounced and has a shade of silvery blue, vascular nevi - depigmentation is absent when viewed under the rays of a Wood's lamp. Moreover, luminescent diagnostics of microsporia (ringworm), microtoxins, fungal infections should be used in complete darkness.

You can influence not only the skin, but also the mucous membranes. To obtain the most reliable result, the study is carried out in a darkened room. The small size and weight of the Wood's lamp make it very convenient to use. The lamp is safe and allows you to quickly get a reliable result, unlike traditional laboratory methods. Wood's lamp is intended for diagnosing the condition of the skin, for choosing the tactics and method of care, for monitoring the dynamics of changes in the condition of the skin during the treatment process.

Precautionary measures:
Wood's lamp is not used to examine areas of the skin where there is damage. When diagnosing facial skin, a protective fabric eye patch is required.

This device is used in many areas, from forensics to the art of hidden drawings. UV radiation helps diagnose many skin diseases, fungal and bacterial infections, identify counterfeit banknotes and find organic traces at the crime scene. Read below about the benefits that a Wood's lamp can bring to the household.

This is the name of a lamp whose glow is in the ultraviolet range, its light is barely distinguishable, but organic matter, the waste products of some types of microbes and fungi in its light begin to glow brightly, the color of the glow from a fungal disease or, say, staphylococcus will be different.

The discovery of glass that transmits only ultraviolet rays (Wood's glass) belongs to the American physicist Robert Williams Wood. He conducted research on the properties of infrared and ultraviolet radiation, created optics that allow you to take pictures in this part of the spectrum. It was Wood who took the first ultraviolet photographs of the moon.

This happened at the very beginning of the last century.

Where is the Wood's lamp used?

• Criminalistics- "black lamp" allows you to learn a lot, for example, when examining a crime scene. In ultraviolet light, the slightest spots of physiological secretions are visible: blood, urine, semen, saliva - they intensely fluoresce in a dark room when examined using UV radiation.

• Determining the Authenticity of Documents and bank notes. On documents and banknotes special characters, which appear in ultraviolet light and serve as protection against counterfeiting.
• Beauty Salons, use this device to determine the type of skin, inflammatory processes and the presence of skin infections in their clients, based on these data, they prescribe medical or caring cosmetics.

• Entertainment industry- ultraviolet scanning reveals tags that are used instead of tickets in nightclubs, discos, and music festivals. In the light of ultraviolet light, they glow brightly: patterns applied with special paints to the skin or clothes that are not visible in sunlight, decorative fluorescent cosmetics and jewelry.

Wood's lamp or traditional tests?

Traditional analyzes require medical equipment, experienced laboratory assistants, expensive drugs, and most importantly: it takes a certain time, which varies depending on the disease, from a day to a month.

An experienced doctor with a Wood's lamp will make a diagnosis in a few minutes, because the causative agents of infection and their metabolic products, even at the earliest stages, will glow brightly in ultraviolet rays, and by the shade you can accurately determine what the patient is sick with.

How can a Woods lamp be useful in everyday life?

This device can be of great use at home. For example: if you have a cat that sometimes marks, and you can not always determine the source of the smell, then using this device, you can easily find all the "surprises". or any other object will glow yellow or greenish.

The advice of the authors of the site “Modern Home Economics” in the articles will help you remove stains and an unpleasant smell: “The cat marked the slippers,?” And How ".

During the inspection of the surfaces, many spots invisible to the eye may appear. Let's say stain removers: they also glow, but have a more purple hue than organics. After the marks are found, it will not be difficult to wash them off with any preparation with enzymes. You can also easily find traces of other organic contaminants in any corner of the house.

With the help of such a device, you can at home check the authenticity of banknotes and documents on which fluorescent security marks are used.

Hand Made craftsmen use this tool to create hidden designs and fluorescent decorations.

At home, you yourself at an early stage can learn about the onset of diseases of the skin and mucous membranes. Of course, the final diagnosis and treatment should be prescribed by the attending physician. But instead of expensive analysis, which does not always give positive result at the beginning of the disease (just when the treatment is most effective), you can use the "black light lamp" and find out everything about the condition of your skin, the skin of your loved ones and pets.

Normal skin will glow light blue when viewed with a Wood's lamp, a brighter blue glow may indicate that the skin is overdried and needs additional care. Inflamed areas will glow white, and sensitive skin will glow purple. Oily skin will give a yellow halo.

How to use the Woods lamp?

1. The examination is carried out in a dark room without windows.
2. All those in the room wear special safety glasses that can be purchased complete with a lamp.
3. No medications are applied to the patient's skin during the day before the study. Ointments, creams and other pharmacological and cosmetic products have their own glow and can distort the clinical picture.
4. Before the study, it is not necessary to wash or disinfect the affected area.
5. Before proceeding with the diagnosis, the device is warmed up for at least a minute.
6. They act on the skin and mucous membranes from a distance of 8-15 cm.

Wood's lamp to buy

You can buy such a lamp in an electrical goods store, or order it specially on the Internet on the clinical equipment website. The medical device is equipped with a reflector and a magnifying glass, for a more accurate examination of the affected areas of the dermis, sometimes glasses and a black case are included.

In Russia, "black light lamps" are produced: NPO "LIT" (Moscow), OOO "VNISI" (Moscow). OAO Lisma-VNIIIS (Saransk), OAO Special Design Bureau Ksenon (Zelenograd). Foreign manufacturers: (Philips, Radium, LightTech, Sylvania, Osram, etc.) The cost varies depending on the manufacturer and configuration from 25 before 65 $.

Anastasia , 8 June 2016 .

Luminescent diagnosis of vitiligo is carried out in a darkened room using a Wood's lamp after the researcher has adapted to the dark. The method makes it possible to detect skin areas at the very beginning of depigmentation. On the background dark skin bright, bright white areas of various sizes and shapes, invisible under normal lighting, are clearly contoured. The edges of the spots are sharply pigmented.

Luminescent diagnostics of microsporia: the method is based on the property of hair affected by fungi of the genus Microsporum to give a bright green glow when irradiated with a short-wavelength part of ultraviolet rays. The source of the latter is a portable mercury-quartz lamp of a special design of domestic production. To delay the long-wavelength part of the beam, a Wood filter is used - glass impregnated with nickel salts. By this method, it is possible to detect by the characteristic glow the hair of the head affected by the fungus, as well as fluff on smooth skin.

After lubricating the lesions with ointments, a 5% alcohol solution of iodine, the color or glow may be distorted, weakened or even disappear. In these cases, it is necessary to thoroughly wash your hair with soap and repeat the examination after 3-4 days. The reliability of the above method must be confirmed by microscopy of hair taken from the lesion.

A darker glow, reminiscent of malachite, is observed with favus, and areas of blastomycosis luminesce pink-orange.

Luminescent diagnosis of late skin porphyria: the patient collects daily urine in a dark glass container. To prevent putrefactive processes in the urine, which can change its color and transparency, 10-15 ml of toluene is added to the container. From the collected daily urine (you can take a single amount of urine after night retention), pour 5 ml into a test tube and place it under a Wood's fluorescent lamp, preferably in an apparatus for fluorescent analysis of vitamins. The reaction is considered positive if the urine under study has a red fluorescence, in healthy people it gives a bluish-white glow.

Luminescent diagnosis of pityriasis versicolor: the method is used to detect lesions on the scalp. In a dark room, the scalp is illuminated with a Wood's lamp. The lesions have a golden yellow, yellow-brown or brownish glow.

Identification of lesions on the scalp is important for the treatment of pityriasis versicolor, since practitioners often forget about this localization, which leads to further relapses of the disease.

Luminescent diagnosis of erythrasma: the method is used to distinguish erythrasma from inguinal epidermophytosis, rubromycosis. Lesions are examined in the rays of a Wood's lamp. With erythrasma (lesions should not previously be subjected to local therapy), a characteristic coral-red glow is observed, which is more pronounced in the peripheral zone.

10. Carrying out a balser test with tincture of iodine

It is used to diagnose pityriasis (varicolored) lichen. The spots are smeared with a 5% alcohol solution of iodine. Due to the loosening of the stratum corneum in the area of ​​the rash, the iodine solution is absorbed into these areas more strongly and the stain becomes more intense than the surrounding healthy skin. In the absence of iodine solution, aniline dyes can be used. It should be noted that with residual leukoderma after pityriasis versicolor, especially in individuals exposed to ultraviolet radiation, the Balser test is negative.

Ringworm is one of the most common forms of hair loss. Wood's lamp is a diagnostic tool with an ultraviolet light generator, which makes it possible to recognize the condition of the skin by its glow. It reveals ringworm, mycoses of the skin and appendages, inflammatory processes, pigmentation disorders, vascular changes. Toxin particles and fungi glow in different colors under a Wood's lamp, for example the microsporum glows green. Luminescent study is an accurate and affordable method in the diagnosis of dermatomycosis.

Principle of operation

Wood's lamp is a tool for studying the affected areas in order to identify the pathology and select the appropriate treatment. The method is based on the use of black light. These are wavelengths of the UV spectrum of a certain length, which, passing through glass treated with nickel oxide, appear violet. Modern sources of such light are diodes, incandescent lamps or light-insulating lamps. In addition, the device contains light filters to improve the quality of diagnostics.

Depending on the change in the shades of the glow, one or another change in the epidermis can be suspected. To detect dermatoses, ringworm, trichophytosis, candidiasis, leukoplakia, lupus, favus, oncopathology, the site of the lesion must be illuminated under ultraviolet light. UV screening is subject to open areas of the skin, scalp, eyebrows and nail plates.

Method for diagnosing lichen with a lamp

Wood's lamp is UV lamp longwave radiation.

Compliance with the rules of use guarantees a reliable result and safety for both the specialist and the patient, namely:

• An important condition for conducting such a study is a dark room.
• To protect the eyes from burns, UV specialists put on a special protective mask, the patient is asked to close their eyes.
• Time of diagnostics - no more than 2 minutes.
• The distance should not exceed 10-20 cm from the skin.

Due to the relative speed of diagnosis of the affected areas, as well as the risk of allergic skin lesions or pigmentation, it is recommended to carry out the procedure for no more than 1-2 minutes. Make sure the lesions have not been treated. Ointments and gels can distort information and give a false positive result. In the latent period of the disease, the lamp may not detect the presence of the fungus. In this case, it is recommended to repeat the study after 1-2 weeks. The presence of open wounds of the skin is considered a direct contraindication to diagnosis.

Decryption

Normal, unaffected skin glows blue.

Saturated blue paint serves as an indicator for determining the degree of dehydration of the skin. Too sensitive skin glows purple. With a white glow, inflammation is suspected, however, it is possible to detect banal pollution with a low hue. Brown light is used to detect areas of increased or decreased pigmentation.

When the skin is illuminated with a Voodoo lamp, the color spectrum of the radiation changes depending on the type of lichen, as can be seen from the table:

The UV voodoo lamp is compact and lightweight. Efficiency, mobility, high accuracy and low cost of this method speak in favor of using it for diagnosing skin lesions. The UV diagnostic method is not only safe and painless, but also allows you to instantly get the result and prescribe, if necessary, additional studies, as well as appropriate adequate therapy.

Lichen, or scientifically “microsporia” is a common disease in pets and is transmitted to humans. The disease is quite easily treated, and does not pose a direct threat to the life of a living being.

But at the same time, it can cause a lot of trouble, ranging from a complex due to external manifestations on the skin and ending with uncomfortable sensations. Treating lichen under ultraviolet light is one of the effective methods hardware therapy.

Animals mainly transmit microsporia spores through close contact, or contact with objects that a sick animal has touched. A person receives spores on his skin most often also from cute pussies.

In cats, the disease looks like this:

• “naked” spots gradually grow on the body - the fungus destroys the structure of the coat, causing baldness;
• bald areas are covered along the edge with dry crusts of dead skin, tangled with the remnants of wool;
• with weeping lichen, rounded spots ooze liquid, small wounds can also form if the cat has managed to damage the affected skin;
• the inflamed area itches, which is why the animal often licks and bites it.

In humans, microsporia looks like this:

• when spores get on the body, a small red rash is first visible, which gradually forms into rounded spots with a dark outline;
• the affected area is covered with dryish crusts, the skin in these places has increased dryness;
• in some cases, wet spots can be observed (weeping lichen);
• periodically lichen itches a lot, which cannot bring pleasure;
• when the scalp is affected, abundant dandruff and partial baldness are observed, since the microsporia fungus destroys the hair shafts up to the bulb.

The modern development of technology contributes to the emergence of high-quality equipment in all areas of medicine. With the help of new equipment, it is possible to more accurately determine the type of disease. For example, in cats, local baldness may be due to another reason, so it can be difficult to immediately determine the disease “by eye”.

In humans, the signs are more pronounced, but it is also used to confirm the diagnosis. special method examination of skin scrapings from the inflamed area and its examination in the laboratory.

Doctors also use a Voodoo lamp for diagnosis - a device that illuminates the selected area with black light. This light consists in the development of waves invisible to the ordinary eye through ultraviolet. In the rays of such lighting, the skin affected by the fungus is distinguished by a certain glow.

There is another way to determine lichen - sowing on a special medium. Used in many countries to diagnose animals.

Lichen treatment

It is worth noting that in cats and dogs, the disease can go away on its own within 2-4 months. When skin disease in humans, the doctor prescribes immunostimulating drugs, topical agents, and at an advanced stage, procedures can be prescribed with irradiation of affected skin areas with ultraviolet rays.

Important! Vaccination against lichen does not give the promised effect, moreover, it can worsen the condition of the animal and complicate treatment.

Lichen treatment mainly consists of the use of local antiseptic, antifungal and regenerating agents in the form of lotions, creams and ointments.

Also practiced effective treatment ultraviolet. In the summer season, it is not difficult to do it yourself - sunlight is a natural source of ultraviolet radiation. And regular exposure to the sun helps to cure skin diseases.

It is also worth noting that the best result with the prevention of relapse is obtained with combined treatment.