Its been around 2 years that we are fighting from Covid-19. We all know the symptoms of Covid-19 that are fever, a cough, fatigue, loss of your senses of smell and taste, headache, muscle and joint pain, and nasal congestion. There have been some skin complaints like skin rashes too. But now there is another part of the body that would be impacted by Coronavirus is fingernails.
There have been some patients of coronavirus in which their fingernails appear discolored or deformed after a few weeks later of the Covid-19 infection – this phenomenon is called ‘Covid Nails’.
There have been multiple cases reported but not much. Have a look at Covid Nails cases.
Red Half Moon Pattern
Red Half Moon Pattern is one of the symptoms of Covid Nails found in patients with Covid-19 infections after few weeks. Red Half Moon Pattern forms a convex band over the white area at the base of fingernails. It appears in less than 2 weeks after the Covid-19 infection is diagnosed.
This symptom of Covid Nails is shown earlier than other fingernail complaints. Red Half Moon pattern is rare and not seen so close to nailing base in comparison to other fingernail complaints. This indication of the red half-moon pattern might be of Covid-19 infection.
But the process of red half-moon pattern nails is unclear. There is a possible cause which could be blood vessel damage associated with the virus. It can also be possible due to the immune response mounted against the virus causing mini blood clots and discoloration. These patterns on nails are not to worry much, as patients are asymptomatic. But it is unclear that for how long this pattern stays, according to reports this pattern will stay from one week to four weeks.
Beau’s Lines
There are some more patients of Covid-19 in which the horizontal indentations in the bases of the nails of the finger and toes have found. These horizontal indentations are known as Beau’s lines. These lines appear after four or more weeks of Covid-19 infection is diagnosed.
Occurrence of Beau’s lines when there is a temporary interruption in nail growth due to any injury or severe illness on the body such as an infection, malnutrition, or side-effects of remedy such as chemotherapy drugs. There are also chances that these beau’s lines are caused by Covid-19, but these symptoms are not exclusive of Covid-19.
Tim Spector – an epidemiologist and science writer – hared his view on Covid Nails through his tweet (embed below).
In general, nails grow between 2mm and 5mm in a month on average. And Beau’s lines come to notice within four to five weeks after there is any physical stress as the nail grows the lines or indentations are shown. The occurrence of the stressful event can be estimated by looking at how far Beau’s lines from the nail base. There is no specific treatment to remove beau’s lines, they grow out eventually if the stressful condition is resolved.
Currently, these symptoms of nail changes are not associated with the severity of Covid-19 infection.
Other Unusual Findings
Red Half Moon Pattern and Beau’s Lines are common Covid-19 related nail complaints. Researchers have recorded some other unusual findings about Covid Nails also.
There is a female covid patient, whose nails are loosened from the nail base and fell out after three months of infection. This process is known as onychomadesis. The reasons are the same for this as for beau’s lines appearing on nails. This lady did not do any treatment for these nail changes as new healthy nails can be seen underneath the nails that are detached. It seems like this issue is resolving itself.
There is another patient in which orange discoloration to their nail tips is witnessed after 112 days of testing positive. No treatment is given to a patient and until now discoloration of the nails had not resolved after a month. And this process is unknown.
There is another unusual finding in which a patient had horizontal white lines appears on the nail which could not disappear with pressure. The process of this is known as Mee’s lines or transverse leukonychia. These lines appear after 45 days of testing positive for Covid-19. Later, these lines are resolved as the nail grows and the person did not require any treatment. Mee’s lines might appear due to the abnormal production of proteins in the nail bed due to systemic disorders.
Leads To Mystery
Nail changes like red half-moon pattern, beau’s lines, and mee’s lines not revealing any mechanisms and any direct link between these nail changes (Covid Nails) and Covid-19. To be exact researchers have to receive more cases to give an exact reason behind the nail changes. All these cases of nail changes have occurred after the Covid-19 infection, but it is not known that they were caused by the disease or it can be possible that these nail changes cases are unrelated to Covid-19.
If possible that there is some link between Covid-19 and nail changes (Covid Nails) then also there are not all patients of Covid-19 who are having these problems. And this nail change does not mean that you had a Covid-19. Until there is no exact proof. We can not say much about Covid Nails at this point but we hope these changes are only indications of past infection only and will help to detect if a person had Covid or not.
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