Red-brown speckles on palm of hands and fingers

[Wonko]

Just fingertips for me.

Yes, fingertips, by other places I meant fingers I hadn't used as BG test sites.
As I suggested above I had pretty much assumed they were "just one of those things", that occurs with aging - not inspecting strangers fingers that closely on a regular basis tends to that sort of conclusion about a lot of things.

 

[TiredSam]

Well until I find an explanation it remains "just one of those things" for me too.

 

[Forbin]

Can't think of anything I use only my right hand for, except for stirring my stocks of silver nitrate of course.

You should be more cautious when preparing your tintypes.

 

[Dechi]

These look like tiny micro-infarcts or micro-haemorrhages. If they come away without causing bleeding they must be in the epidermis - the outer layer of keratin forming cells. Micro-haemorrhages from low platelet count or just fragile skin (worse with steroids, ageing) are not in the epidermis. What I think is happening is that individual tiny capillaries are breaking up right at the skin surface and a tiny amount of blood pigment is leaking into the epidermis.

The pattern in the photos is not something I have seen before. That suggests that it is not a sign of any well known disease but it is a bit puzzling. i would be interested to know if there are any marks like this in the cuticles around the nails, where they can be helpful diagnostic clues.

@Jonathan Edwards thank you for shedding some light on this. I don’t have any around the cuticles. They seem to be exclusively on the inside of the hand. I do have nail fungus though that I am trying to get rid of with Jublia (but the speckles started before the Jublia came along). I’ve had the nail fungus for more than 20 years, so it would be odd to start spreading now (and I don’t think nail fungus spreads to skin anyways).

I do have low white blood cells though. Borderline low, the last two times I had blood taken. My GP wants another blood work in a few weeks (she wanted to control 2 months after my last blood check).

The last few weeks they have started spreading faster. I had only a few for a long time, but now there’s probably more than a hundred. I’ve started having a lot of dizziness lately. Mind you I’ve been doing renos (managing) and then moving, which has been really hard on me. I’ve had to push through and I’m not pacing like I should. The dizziness and malaise is so bad I have to sit and lie down on the floor many times a day. It’s difficult to stand and walk when it happens. I don’t know if this is all linked or not.

 

[Hoopoe]

@TiredSam I had the exact same thing for years. Hardened flat vesicles just under the skin, filled with liquid. Not painful. Mainly on fingers and a few on the palm of the hand as well. Mine were less dark though.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Curiouser and curiouser.

The interesting thing about the spots on @TiredSam's photo is that there is a slight pale halo around them. That indicates that they are not just tiny haemorrhages. They involve some sort of mediator release as in inflammation.

And I wonder if that nail fungus is really fungus @Dechi? Could it be a nail dystrophy as seen in Reiter's or psoriasis?

The one thing that intrigues me is that various clues make me think of something called keratoderma or KB. KB marks are usually larger and slightly raised but occur on the palm and sole. They are due to T cells.

Edit: Sam did say his were slightly raised I see.
I think if there are actual vesicles, as @strategist mentions, the problem is more likely to be a variant of eczema called pompholyx.

 

[Hoopoe]

I think if there are actual vesicles, as @strategist mentions, the problem is more likely to be a variant of eczema called pompholyx.

Googling for that led me to this image on Wikipedia which is pretty close. I just didn't have a many blisters, and they were not raised much if at all. So seen from the side, the blisters in the picture look different, but seen from top they look identical.

 

[TiredSam]

Sorry I probably wasn't too clear. I don't have blisters as in @strategist's photo, I have brown speckles just under the skin, which do not cause the surface to raise or blister. Neither do they rise to the surface, they just hang around where they are, appearing and disappearing.

I also tried to describe what was happening on the surface of the skin above these speckles. Not much, but it feels a bit rougher than usual sometimes, as if there is a micro rash or blisters there, but there's nothing to see really, it's just how it feels when I run another finger over it.

EDIT: and it's not like that now, all smooth and correct above surface.

 

[Forbin]

As a teenager, probably up to about age 20, I had the blisters seen in @strategist's photo (though mostly larger and fewer in number). It was generally between the fingers, but sometimes it was on the palms (both hands) as well (where it was flatter and deeper under the skin).

I assume this is what is known as "dyshydrosis" (aka dyshidrotic eczema, or pompholyx eczema). In fact, the photo in @strategists post can be found on the Wikipedia page on dydhydrosis.

Much more rarely, it would show up on my feet. It could be pretty widespread on my hands as a teenager. As an adult, I have only had isolated and much more limited recurrences of it on rare occasions.

 

[Wonko]

Googling for that led me to this image on Wikipedia which is pretty close. I just didn't have a many blisters, and they were not raised much if at all. So seen from the side, the blisters in the picture look different, but seen from top they look identical.

View attachment 3701

I also have these, they come and go, but rarely go completely, had them for a long time, over a decade. I had associated them getting worse/spreading with general deterioration of my condition.

Before anyone puts up another photo of something different I would then post saying I have the main other skin thing I have had is hard tiny white spots, start off as one or 2 and then proliferate, and die back after a while, mainly on hands and feet. The only thing that I have noticed shifts them is carbamazepine (clears them up overnight). They come back every few years.

 

[Dechi]

Curiouser and curiouser.

The interesting thing about the spots on @TiredSam's photo is that there is a slight pale halo around them. That indicates that they are not just tiny haemorrhages. They involve some sort of mediator release as in inflammation.

And I wonder if that nail fungus is really fungus @Dechi? Could it be a nail dystrophy as seen in Reiter's or psoriasis?

The one thing that intrigues me is that various clues make me think of something called keratoderma or KB. KB marks are usually larger and slightly raised but occur on the palm and sole. They are due to T cells.

Edit: Sam did say his were slightly raised I see.
I think if there are actual vesicles, as @strategist mentions, the problem is more likely to be a variant of eczema called pompholyx.

@Jonathan Edwards I will check into nail distrophy, I have never heard of that ! I have the supposed fungus on my toe nails also. I didn’t mention I have vitiligo that comes and goes on some spots, and permanent on others. Not severe.

Was the part about at-cells for me or Tiredsam, or both ?

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Was the part about at-cells for me or Tiredsam, or both ?

I cannot see the detail of your spots quite so well. They look a little different but may be the same thing.

 

[Dechi]

@Jonathan Edwards can you see better with these photos ?

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

@Jonathan Edwards can you see better with these photos ?

yes, I don't see pale rings but that may only happen early on.

 

[Forbin]

FWIW, I have similar red/brown dots (see below) that reach from my ankles to about midway up my calves. The "freckling" is actually staining of the skin left over from previous dots. This started when I was about 40 and has nothing to do with sun exposure.

It might be a benign form of capillaritis called "Shamberg's disease," which principally affects the lower legs but can occasionally be seen elsewhere, including the hands.

Schamberg's disease is caused by leaky blood vessels near the surface of the skin, capillaries, which allow red blood cells to slip through into the skin. The red blood cells in the skin then fall apart and release their iron, which is released from hemoglobin. The iron causes a rust color and this accounts for the orange tint of the rash that can be seen on the skin. The underlying cause of the leaky blood vessels is not known, but researchers are suggesting that there could be some potential triggers. Some possible triggers include viral infection, a hypersensitivity to some agent, and interaction of some medications, such as thiamine and aspirin. Even though there is no correlation with genetics, there have been a few cases where few people in a family had this condition.

[ I don't recommend doing an image search for "Shamberg's disease" because Google will mainly come up with a lot of disturbing images of other, more serious, forms of capillaritis. ]

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

FWIW, I have similar red/brown dots (see below) that reach from my ankles to about midway up my calves.

This is gravitational purpura, which is common and benign. I think Shamberg's disease is a bit of an overkill diagnosis, although there may be a few people who have it rather markedly rather young. It mostly occurs over 40.

The reason for getting these spots on the legs is hydrostatic pressure in capillaries. The puzzling thing about the spots on the palms is that they do not fit with anything as simple as that.

 

[Dechi]

I went to see the pharmacist and ask if it could be from Aspirin or Nimotop. She didn’t think so amd said I should continue Aspirin. I take it in prevention because of a transcien cérébral ischemia the doctors think I had about 5 years ago.

Now I’m afraid to take Aspirin, and I’m afraid not to take it... :-(

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I went to see the pharmacist and ask if it could be from Aspirin or Nimotop. She didn’t think so amd said I should continue Aspirin. I take it in prevention because of a transcien cérébral ischemia the doctors think I had about 5 years ago.

Now I’m afraid to take Aspirin, and I’m afraid not to take it... :-(

Those spots are not a reason not to take aspirin, to my mind. Even if aspirin made them easier to form they are not doing any harm.

 

[Hoopoe]

I'm a bit disappointed that this thread has not yet yielded any grand theories on how all these skin problems tie into ME.

I'm joking. Skin problems are fairly common aren't they?

 

[Dechi]

I noticed they’re not only on the palm of my hands. They’re on the I side of my arms too. And probably other places, except I can’t see well enough to tell.