Gracie Anderson

The digital age keeps us on our toes for most parts of adulthood. As busy professionals managing home and work with same gusto, we hardly ever find time to take proper care of ourselves. However, keeping a tab on health and fitness is imperative.

Do you often notice black lines underneath your fingernails? They can be a sign that you have developed splinter hemorrhages. Do not shrug (or worse still, chew) them off just yet. The reason is, those black lines under your nails are not as benign as they may seem to be.

This post will tell you about splinter hemorrhages, their symptoms, causes and a few ways to treat them. Read on to know whether those black lines underneath your fingernails have more to reveal than they apparently show.

What are the splinter hemorrhages?

After a long day’s work, when you reach home, your kids come running to you for Assignment help. Hence, this is not quite the ideal time to check your nails thoroughly. Moreover, you will not be able to check them when you are typing away furiously on your keyboard at work.

But why do you even need to keep a regular check on your nails?

You do so to determine whether you have been afflicted with a splinter hemorrhage.

A splinter hemorrhage occurs when you have longitudinal lines on your nails, usually black or deep red in color. Leading doctors are of the opinion that splinter hemorrhages mostly form on the distal one-third portion of the nails most frequently.

Splinter hemorrhages can often be a sign of a grave medical condition that you have developed in your body. It might also be a way of your body calling out for help. Ignoring splinter hemorrhages for long can thus lead to pretty dire consequences.

Why are they called “splinter hemorrhages”?

This strange ailment gets its name from its appearance. With the black or reddish-black lines running vertically under your nails, they look a lot like wooden splinters. The blood spill or clot formation (also called hemorrhages) looks a lot like wooden splinters, hence the name.

The telltale signs of the ailment can be identified by knowing about the symptoms of splinter hemorrhages.

What are the signs that you may be affected with splinter hemorrhage?

The natural lines that run up and down your nails are affected by splinter hemorrhages when the blood clots up underneath your fingernails. As the blood clot attaches itself to the nail plate, it seems like the line or spot is moving upwards as the nail grows. The streaks are mostly dark red, reddish-brown or black in color and measure up to 1 to 3 millimeters.

Splinter hemorrhages are not painful in most cases. But if you have longitudinal black lines on your nails that are paining, the chances are they might have resulted from a more serious medical condition in your body. The following section contains a discussion about the causes of splinter hemorrhages. Give it a read and consult a doctor if they seem familiar with your nail condition.

What are the primary causes of developing splinter hemorrhages?

Studies show that men are more affected by splinter hemorrhages than women. In fact, people with a darker skin tone are also more prone to developing this queer nail condition due to trauma or other causes.

Splinter hemorrhages appear on your nails when a blood vessel (called capillaries) underneath your nails rupture and the blood clots under the nail plate. The blood clot takes on a dark red or reddish-brown color and might have plenty of reasons for appearing on your nails.

Here are the primary medical causes of splinter hemorrhages appearing on your nails.

• Trauma or injury

This is perhaps the commonest cause of splinter hemorrhages in healthy adults – male and female alike. Almost 20% of splinter hemorrhage cases are caused due to trauma or injury of nails. Causing injury to the nails, dropping something heavy on the nails or accidentally breaking the nails might result in rupture of blood vessels or capillaries underneath the fingernails that lead in those black lines.

• Infectious or bacterial endocarditis

Endocarditis causes severe damage to the heart valves. Infections developed through veins (through the usage of non-sterilised syringes, mainly) show up as a late symptom of endocarditis. The bacteria in the veins travel up to the heart and cause damage to the heart valves through this disease. Get yourself checked thoroughly if you develop splinter hemorrhage that just doesn’t seem to go away.

• Nail psoriasis

One of the most typical of skin and nail afflictions, this one is an autoimmune disease that results in extra skin cells to form on the nails. This results in nail chaffing and pitting, in most cases. Nail psoriasis can sometimes form splinter hemorrhages due to infected blood being stuck underneath the fingernails.

• Antiphospholipid syndrome

This type of disease results in blood vessels clotting up inside the veins and arteries of the body. This disease can thus show up as splinter hemorrhage when capillaries under the nail clot up and appear as black marks on the nails.

• Intravenous drug abuse

Illegal or prescription drugs, when taken through an IV apparatus (IV syringes, so to say), carry the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Those diseases, in turn, can show up as splinter hemorrhages on your nails.

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

SLE is an autoimmune disorder that results in clotting of blood inside the veins and arteries, joint pain and alterations in blood circulation patterns. Splinter hemorrhages are a part of the late symptoms of SLE.

• Rheumatic heart conditions

Most children get affected with a serious case of strep throat as kids, later on, develop rheumatic heart diseases. That might show up later as splinter hemorrhage all along the nails.

• Cholesterol and diabetes

Cholesterol and diabetes are two leading causes of blood infection and clotting. Signs of high cholesterol and diabetes can be thus identified through the presence of splinter hemorrhages in the nails.

Medical studies state that those splinter hemorrhages that do not have any specific cause for occurrence are called idiopathic splinter hemorrhages. Those cases apart, splinter hemorrhages usually occur due to a medical condition or usage of certain types of medicines.

Apart from diseases, splinter hemorrhages can also occur due to prolonged usage of medicines such as warfarin, chemotherapy medications such as tetracycline and ganciclovir, and aspirin.

What are the best ways to treat splinter hemorrhages?

Splinter hemorrhages caused by injury or trauma usually require no treatment. Splinter hemorrhages developed from trauma or nail injury typically disappear from the nails within three to four months, bringing back the original nail texture and appearance.

However, if you have not hurt your nails and still have black lines underneath, it is best to look out for the following signs before you schedule a visit with your physician.

• Fever along with black lines on the nails
• Joint pain
• Formation of petechiae (pinpoint-sized dots on the skin)
• Bring about a healthy change in your diet and lifestyle. Eat loads of fruits and veggies enriched with calcium and vitamin C. These will assist in making the nails stronger so that the chances of rupturing blood vessels from minor injuries can be brought down significantly.

Wrapping it up

Those benign black lines underneath your fingernails might be a sign of something more severe. Ignoring splinter hemorrhages is thus not the ideal way to go if you wish to keep yourself healthy and fit.  Take very good care of your nails, get some exercise, follow a healthy diet and lifestyle, and watch out for those black lines on your nails that keep occurring now and then. Staying in the pink of your health starts with you.