Fingernails can say a lot about a person's lifestyle and health. While vertical ridges on fingernails are very common and usually have nothing to say, there are various possible causes for the formation of transverse ridges on the nails.

 

Possible causes of transverse grooves on the fingernails

- After a serious illness such as systemic infection or diabetes, horizontal dents are occasionally found on the nail plate. Chemotherapy can also cause these dents. Patients with Raynaud's disease may develop these lines in cold temperatures. Another cause may be malnutrition. After the recovery phase, the grooves usually go away on their own.

- Muehrcke lines are used as furtherThese are visible as large lines across the nail, parallel to the nail crescent. These stripes are caused by vascular anomalies of the nail bed. They disappear temporarily when the nail is pressed down. Muehrcke lines are not in the nail bed and therefore do not grow out with the nail. The lines are present in patients with low protein levels, kidney or liver disease or malnutrition.

- White horizontal bands on several nails are caused by arsenic poisoning or systemic diseases. The width of the white lines varies. These lines grow with the nail.

- If the nail plate is white except for a transverse stripe on the fingertip, it may be due to liver cirrhosis, diabetes, kidney disease or HIV.

- The pale, horizontal half-moons at the lower end of the nail are called lunula. If the lunula is bluish in colour, silver poisoning or Wilson's disease may be present. Red lunula is caused by liver cirrhosis, carbon monoxide poisoning, heart failure or psoriasis.

- Fingernails and toenails can experience so-called nail trauma, i.e. a pinched finger or a hard blow can leave horizontal dents in the nail. These dents are temporary and disappear when the nail grows out.