splinter hemhorrages

[veggielove]

Hi
I am very worried about my fingernail splinter hemorrhages. Noticed them about a year or so ago and now I have more on like 7 fingers. Sometimes 3 on a single nail. All my search es bring up horrible things like endocarditis.I'm petrified...

[Smiley2000]

Hi there,

If your nails are soft or even to hard, you can get these splinters from bending or bumping it.  

I had Endocarditis and the splinters and red spots on feet/ancles and hands only appear in the very late stage of the disease.

Very unlikely that you have Endocarditis.

[skydnsr]

Okay, what I said about the blood tests being a waste of time if you don't have symptoms, I shouldn't have said that, because if the doctor wants you to have to blood tests, then you should do them.  The lab can culture your blood to see if bacteria will grow from the sample.  But the doctor can also tell pretty well from simpler blood tests, like a CBC, whether you have an infection or not, and if you don't seem in any way like you have any kind of infection, then I really doubt the doctor will want to culture your blood for bacteria. A CBC is a pretty normal test for a general physical exam, and I wouldnt be suprised if the doctor orders that, plus maybe a basic metabolic panel.  Both of those are really common tests.  When I said what I did in the first postwas talking about the culture tests.  It does seem very unlikely to me that you have endocarditis, if your only symptom is splinter hemorrahges.  Just see a doctor and don't worry.  Good luck.

[skydnsr]

I've had splinter hemorrahages for about the past 12 or 13 years and have never had endocarditis.  I do have aortic valve disease.  I don't know if there's any connection between my splinter hemorrages and my valve disease.  There might be a connection, but even after I had my bad valve replaced, the splinter hemorrages persisted.  

I can tell you that if you see a cardiologist, he or she will not be at all impressed by the fact that you have splinter hemorrages.  Cardiologists do their examinations based on a totally different set of observations.  It's always a good idea to get a good, thorough physical exam if you haven't had one in a long time, though.  You can start with a primary care physician (PCP).  The PCP will tell you if you need to see a cardiologist.

Talk to the doctor that you see and ask him or her to listen very carefully for a heart murmur.  In addition, there are blood tests that can rule out endocarditis, but if you don't have any symptoms of endocarditis (like night sweats or unexplained fevers), the blood tests are probably a waste of time.  If you are having any symptoms at all, of any kind, obviously you should tell the doctor about them.  

You probably don't have endocarditis, so try to stop worrying so much, if you can.  But preventive medical care is a good thing, and hopefully it will ease your mind.