Nail clubbing is when your nails appear wider, spongelike or swollen, like an upside-down spoon. Clubbed nails are often a sign of a health condition that needs treatment, such as lung cancer. Treating the underlying condition may help nails return to normal.
Nail clubbing is a change in the appearance and structure of your fingernails or toenails that can occur as a symptom of an underlying health condition. If you have nail clubbing, your nails may:
Nail clubbing can affect a few of your nails or all of them. Often, it starts in your thumb and forefinger (pointer finger) before spreading to other nails.
What Is The Specific Cause Of This Patient's Clubbing?
Nail clubbing often occurs gradually and may be hard to spot at first. In the early stages, you may notice any of the following:
Nail clubbing is most often associated with diseases of the heart and lungs, like lung cancer, lung infections, interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis or cardiovascular disease.
Nail clubbing itself isn’t harmful and usually isn’t painful. Sometimes, nail clubbing occurs in a healthy person without an obvious reason. However, it’s often a sign of a serious health condition that needs medical care, so don’t wait to get it evaluated by a healthcare provider.
Diamond Gap' Fingernail Test Could Show An Early Sign Of Lung Cancer
Because nail clubbing is usually a sign of an underlying health condition, providers typically direct treatment at the underlying cause. For example, your treatment plan may include:
There’s no known way to prevent nail clubbing. But you can prevent some of the conditions that lead to nail clubbing by doing the following:
If you notice nail clubbing or any changes in your nails, see a healthcare provider. Nail clubbing may be a sign of a health condition that needs treatment.
Clubbing Of Nails
The health and appearance of your nails are a window into your overall health. See a healthcare provider if you notice any nail changes. Getting treatment for the underlying cause of nail clubbing can help you live your healthiest life possible.
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. PolicyNail clubbing, also known as digital clubbing or clubbing, is a deformity of the finger or toe nails associated with a number of diseases, mostly of the heart and lungs.
The incidce of clubbing is unknown; it was prest in about 1% of people admitted to an internal medicine unit of a hospital.
Lung Cancer Symptoms: Finger Clubbing When The Nails Curve And Bend Could Be An Early Sign
Nail clubbing is not specific to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, in patits with COPD and significant degrees of clubbing, a search for signs of bronchogic carcinoma (or other causes of clubbing) might still be indicated.
A special form of clubbing is hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy (HPOA), known in contintal Europe as Pierre Marie-Bamberger syndrome. This is the combination of clubbing and thicking of periosteum (connective tissue lining of the bones) and synovium (lining of joints), and is oft initially diagnosed as arthritis. It is commonly associated with lung cancer.
Primary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy is HPOA without signs of pulmonary disease. This form has a hereditary compont, although subtle cardiac abnormalities can occasionally be found. It is known eponymously as the Touraine–Solte–Golé syndrome. This condition has be linked to mutations in the ge on the fourth chromosome (4q33-q34) coding for the zyme 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogase (HPGD); this leads to decreased breakdown of prostaglandin E2 and elevated levels of this substance.
U.k. Woman's Curved Nail Post Prompts Lung Cancer Diagnosis
Wh clubbing is observed, pseudoclubbing should be excluded before making the diagnosis. Associated conditions may be idtified by taking a detailed medical history—particular atttion is paid to lung, heart, and gastrointestinal conditions—and conducting a thorough clinical examination, which may disclose associated features relevant to the underlying diagnosis. Additional studies such as a chest X-ray and a chest CT-scan may reveal otherwise asymptomatic cardiopulmonary disease.
Is a popular test for clubbing. Wh the distal phalanges (bones nearest the fingertips) of corresponding fingers of opposite hands are directly opposed (place fingernails of same finger on opposite hands against each other, nail to nail), a small diamond-shaped "window" is normally appart betwe the nailbeds. If this window is obliterated, the test is positive and clubbing is prest.
The exact frequcy of clubbing in the population is not known. A 2008 study found clubbing in 1%, or 15 patits, of 1511 patits admitted to a departmt of internal medicine in Belgium. Of these, 40%, or 6 patits, turned out to have significant underlying disease of various causes, while 60%, or 9 patits, had no medical problems on further investigations and remained well over the subsequt year.
0 comments
Post a Comment