With serious internal diseases, poor nutrition and with age, the growth of the nail slows down, its structure undergoes changes. Only a doctor can accurately determine the cause of the violation based on the results of microscopic tests and examinations.
But to get an idea of what happens to the nails on the legs or hands, you can use the photo with fungal diseases of different kinds.
Causes of nail deformation
Molds, yeast fungi, and dermatophyte fungi cause infectious nail diseases (onychomycosis), which display similar symptoms.
All types of toenail or finger nail fungus deform the nail plate, change its transparency, brightness, color, this variety can be seen in the photos presented.
Nail changes occur not only with onychomycosis, but also with lesions, chronic paronychia (inflammation of the nail fold), psoriasis, hand eczema, dermatitis. Before concluding that a yeast infection exists, you should consider all possible options.
Signs of a yeast infection
The most informative signs of fungal infection are changes in the color of the nail plate, the presence of detachment of the nail, surface changes: transverse and longitudinal grooves on the nail plate, point depressions, thickening, destruction of the nail.
The pink color of a healthy nail is determined by the transparency of the nail plate and the blood vessels visible through it. With onychomycosis, the nail loses its transparency, the color becomes brown, yellow, less often green, black.
Candida fungi and dermatophytes cause onycholysis, the separation of the affected part of the nail. When infected with dermatophytes, onycholysis is observed from the remote edge of the nail, and when infected with Candida, the nail lags behind the nail bed at the base, in the area of the crescent moon.
A symptom of a candida fungus can be inflammation of the lateral periungual ridges: paronychia. This disease has bacterial forms caused by streptococci and staphylococci, as well as other non-infectious ones: eczema, psoriasis, systemic vasculitis.
When the toenails are affected by Trichophyton rubrum fungus, the plaque is affected, as you can see in the photo, the roller is not affected by the infection. The plaque turns yellowish, strongly thickens, accumulated fungal masses are well distinguished under it.
Nail fungus due to dermatophyte infection
In 95% of all cases of nail fungus, the disease is caused by dermatophytes Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes.
Trichophyton rubrum infection
Onychomycosis begins when the fungus penetrates under the nail plate from the free edge. Fungal infection is indicated by the appearance of a yellowish spot, an uneven, crumbling surface of the distal (remote) edge of the nail in the area of the spot.
distal-lateral formof the dermatophyte fungal infection Trichophyton rubrum is common. In the photo it can be seen that the stain caused by the introduction of the fungus is located along the lateral periungual nail fold.
The fungus Trichophyton rubrum, as a rule, affects the big toes, causing hyperkeratosis, an accumulation of fungi between the nail plate and the nail bed, which in the photo looks like a loose yellowish mass.
At this stage, the fungus occupies an insignificant part of the nail, as in the presented photo, and with the help of local treatment it is possible to cope with incipient onychomycosis.
Without treatment, the stain grows, gradually affects the entire edge of the nail and then moves to the crescent. In the photo, the nail fungus looks like yellowish streaks directed towards the growth zone of the nail plate.
Withthe distal form of the nail fungus, which is often found on the big toes, a yellowish patch of infection appears on the distal edge of the nail, in its central part, as can be seen in the photo.
In the advanced stage of the fungus on the legs, several nails are affected, as in the photo, and the treatment is no longer limited to local remedies and pills. In addition to antifungal medications, the nail undergoes hardware cleaning to remove the nail plate in whole or in part.
Long-term therapy with the use of all known antifungal agents and treatments will be performed on the leg, caused by Trichophyton rubrum, with hyperkeritosis, as can be seen in the photo.
Fungal infection with full nail damage spreads to the entire nail plate area, the nail is completely destroyed.
Infection with another representative of the dermatophytes, the fungus Trichophyton mentagrophytes, can also lead to a total fungal infection of the nail.
Trichophyton mentagrophytes infection
With a complete defeat of the toenail with fungi Trichophyton mentagrophytes, the nail plate is deformed, the photo shows that it thickens, changes its structure, collapses, yellowish spots appear all over its surface.
Infection of the nail with this dermatophyte usually causes superficial white onychomycosis of the big toe, less frequently the little finger.
This fungus practically does not occur on the fingernails, it often causes interdigital dermatophytosis on the legs, as in the photo, and requires simultaneous treatment of the skin of the feet and nails.
A symptom of nail fungus infection, usually on the feet, are white spots of various sizes, as in the photo, reminiscent of leukonychia, a disease of the nail plate itself.
But unlike leukonychia, in which the white spots are caused by the appearance of air bubbles in the layers of the nail, the white spots in a fungal infection are the result of the activity ofTrichophyton mentagrophytes.
Rarely, superficial white onychomycosis is caused by molds; in AIDS, the causative agent of this type of fungus can be Trichophyton rubrum and affect the nails of both feet and hands.
Nail changes due to Candida infection
The fungus generally occurs in women, affects the nails of the working hand, which is more often in contact with water.
For Candida onychomycosis, the proximal form of infection is characteristic, in which the fungus first affects the nail fold at the base of the nail and then penetrates the growth zone and nail bed. It then gradually moves along the nail from base to edge, capturing an increasingly larger area of the nail plate.
The disease-causing agent in Candida onychomycosis is Candida albicans. This fungus invades the fingernails and toenails, spreading from the crescent area at the base of the nail plate to the free edge, as can be seen in the photo.
A sign of Candida nail infectionalbicans is inflammation of the nail fold (paronychia), separation of the cuticle from the nail plate, pain, discharge frompus when a bacterial infection attaches.
Candida albicans can penetrate the nail and from its free edge. In this case, they speak of the distal form of infection, which is combined, as a rule, with cutaneous candidiasis.
Treatment of candida fungus on fingernails and toenails with damage to more than half of the nail plate area, as in the photo, includes not only the fight against onychomycosis, but alsomeasures to reduce the activity of candida in the natural reservoirs of its storage: the intestines, the oral cavity, the genital mucosa. . .
Mold infestation
Molds cause fungi much less frequently than Candida or dermatophytes. The main symptom of mold toenail infection is, as you can see in the photo,changes the color of the nail plate to blue, black, greenish.
Signs of toenail mold can be dark spots, spots on the nail plate, or, as in the photo, a black longitudinal streak.
Anti-fungal preparations
Antifungal agents with fluconazole, ketoconazole, terbinafine, itraconazole, griseofulvin are used to treat nail fungus caused by dermatophytes, as in this photo.
Terbinafine antifungal agents are effective for dermatophyte infections.
Antifungal agents with voriconazole are very active against dermatophytes.
It is usedandto treat nail moldon the feet, hands andagainst candida yeast. The spectrum of action includes molds such as Aspergillum, Fusarium, Penicillium.
Itraconazole-based preparations fight against molds.
Fungal-like nail diseases
Sometimes a grayish tintappears on the nailwith eczema. In this case, the nail plate can move away from the nail bed, which is observed with a fungus.
Outwardly very similar to onychomycosismanifestations of psoriasis. With this disease, not onlychanges color, but alsothe nail plate thickens.
There are punctual depressions on its surface, the separation of the nail plate from the nail bed is noted. But there are differences with the fungus: in psoriasis, the healthy, shed parts of the toenail separate with a pink and yellowish stripe over time.
The bluish colorcauses the nailto have a pseudomonas nail infection. Frequent mechanical rubbing of the nail fold causes the appearance of superficial grooves, rippling of the nail.
Leukonychia white patches, whose appearance isassociated with metabolic disorders, can also be mistaken for a superficial white fungus with a large patch area. .
Changes in color, shape of the nail causing injury. Big toes are most at risk. The nail with a lesion, as well as with a fungus, thickens and darkens.
The difference between injury and fungus is that changes during injury are noticeable only on the injured finger, the nails of the other fingers remain unchanged, they are not infected with the diseased finger, as in theonychomycosis
The consequence of trauma can be a partial separation of the nail from the nail bed, the formation of a cavity that, under unfavorable conditions, is rapidly colonized by fungi.
The nail plate can be separated from the nail bed under the influence of light (photoonicolysis), with iron deficiency anemia, hormonal diseases. The division, loss of the nail occurs with lichen erythematosus, bullous dermatosis, trauma to the nail.
But you can finally make sure that the conclusion is correct and start the treatment, you can only after seeking the help of a dermatologist, a specialist in skin diseases or a mycologist, a doctor who treats fungal diseases.