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JAMES B. HUDSON, MD; ALLEN J. DENNIS, JR., MD

Arch Intern Med. 1966;117(2):276-279.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

WHITE transverse lines affecting the fingernails, although classically associated with arsenical poisoning (Mees' lines),^1-3 have been noted after a variety of systemic illnesses, including: thallium toxicity, leprosy, malaria, fluorosis, psoriasis, cardiac insufficiency,⁴ pellagra,⁵ Hodgkin's disease,⁶ pneumonia,⁷ myocardial infarction,⁸ sickle-cell anemia⁹ and infectious fevers (Reil's lines).^10-13 It has been pointed out¹⁴ that it is probably the acute and serious nature of the underlying illness which provokes the formation of such white transverse bands, presumably through a nonspecific effect on nail growth, and in this sense they are often regarded ^2,11,12,15 as the equivalent of Beau's lines,¹⁶ or transverse grooves, which have been described after a similarly varied group of illnesses.¹⁷

It is the purpose of this paper to record the appearance of white transverse lines in the fingernails of six patients after treatment of acute and chronic renal failure.

Report of Cases

Case 1 (March, 1962).

—A 22-year-old farm worker had been . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
AUGUSTA, GA

From the Department of Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, and the Division of Renal Diseases and Georgia Heart Association Laboratories for Cardiovascular Research, Eugene Talmadge Memorial Hospital, Augusta.

Footnotes
Received for publication Aug 24, 1965; accepted Sept 20.

Reprint requests to 1120 15th St, Augusta, Ga 30902 (Dr. Hudson).

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