Brown stains on palms

[khryztophfer]

Like some of the other people who have inquired on this website, I too have woken up to find strange brown stains on the palm of my hand.  It looks like iodine stains.  My hands are clean when I go to bed the night before, and when I wake up the next morning, the strainge iodine-like staining is there.  It doesn't wash off, but does fade throughout the day.  If I'm not coming into contact with anything during my sleep, what could be causing this?  Could it be a delayed reaction from contact with some substance?  Why the irregular pattern (similar to bruising)?  If I came into contact with something, why isn't my whole hand this colour?  


This discussion is related to Brown stain on palms of hands.

[Mama_Amy]

What is this?  I am really freaked out.  I have a fish tank and handle algae when cleaning it, but this has never happened before.  I always wash my hands really well when touching it.  Please help.  and yes I do plan on contacting my doctor.  

[jagesh50]

Sure I did repy elsewhere that there is a fungus tinea nigra which can stain black or brown the palms.

[trustme10]

So i woke up today with the iodine like stains on my left palm.  I dont notice any others on the rest of my body.  I am 20yrs old and a virgin.  I work with E.coli cells and DNA everyday in my research lab.  The spots are painless and my arm in fully functional.  I am senior Biology major going to medical school.  I have taken pathology and believe that Tinea nigra is not a possibility because of its outrageous spreading and contagiousness.  Someone please advice...

-Dr. Stress

[jagesh50]

Tinea nigra is a rare condition overall. One hundred ten cases had been reported up to 1989 and only 19 more cases were recovered from a Medline search up to March 2001.So it is not that infectious, yet can present with brown pigments as isolated cases.Hughes, J. R., M. K. Moore, and A. C. Pembroke. 1993. Tinea nigra palmaris. Clin Exp Dermatol. 18:481-2.

[trustme10]

Doc,

Do you think it is just hyperpigmentation and he skin will slough off soon?

[trustme10]

Doc,

Also how bad is tinea nigra?

[jagesh50]

The one case that I saw,the whole thing cleared up in a couple of days.Not serious,you can apply canesten creme.

[becky3897]

i woke up one morning and it looked like i was staining wood or something and i am 8 months pregnant at night it is not there and in the morning it is then fades and goes away with in 48 hours.  I had nothing for about a month and now i wake up and it is on the bottoms of my feet and palms of hands, my OBGYN does not know what it is and has never seen anything like it in a pregnant person in his 25 years and my family Dr. refered me to a dermatoligist and the dermatoligist........well she is not sure and will look into it so is there no one in the world that can answer what this is.  there is no pain and comes on while sleeping.

[maatson]

Why not get the pigmented area cultured for fungus?Atleast there is one diagnosis has been suggested and it should be pursued and ruled out.

[chippy969]

I had it 3-4 times int he space of 6 weeks, with my partner having it once and my son once when he was visiting, slept downstairs though, wiped out the thought of touching something in my room. At the time 5 yrs ago when I searched on the net for an answer the only thing that came up at the top of the list was a study done by some proffesor in the US about a couple who claimed to be abducted by aliens, was a fair dinkum study from what I read. iodine type staining on hands that could not be washed off only faded after a couple of days, they did a scraping and the test showed that it was`nt any substance identifiable to scientific study