Doctors have managed to diagnose a woman’s illness from looking at her nails. The woman, 48, a nail technician from Venezuela, was hospitalised with a fast heartbeat, dehydration and some symptoms of fever, according to her case in The American Journal of Medicine. Doctors noted she had an acute kidney injury and a high white blood cell count. She was rushed to the ICU and doctors found she had an enlarged thyroid gland. The woman was given a number of different medications. “During the stay in the general ward, the colouring of the patient's fingernails, with a distal reddish band covering approximately 50 per cent of the nail plate and a proximal white band on her 10 fingernails, matching the description of half-and-half nails was noticed,” doctors wrote. “The patient said that the colour of her nails was normal before hospital admission.” Doctors were able to diagnose the woman with Linday’s nails or half-and-half nails. A number of diagnoses were considered but doctors determined she has Graves disease and ruled out chronic kidney insufficiency (CKI). Source
