Skin spots

[Brychni]

In addition to the red spots on my fingers I get them on my nails. Although I've been getting them on and off for a long time now, I recently had quite a few in various places at tge same time including my face and chest. I finally went to the GP about it and she referred me to dermatology (aldo about follow up re. Actinic keratosis on nose) . Dermatology said they were as a result of my iTP. I had to ask what it is. Anyway, pics of nails attached. My question is does having marginally low platelets really cause symptoms? I'm also getting weird redness and swelling above nails. No injury or soreness, just red and shiny and been there for nearly a month.

[PMRpro]

Low platelets means you may bleed a bit more than usual and those spots look similar to petechiae (smaller) or purpurae (slightly larger). Even slight trauma can result in leakage of blood from capillaries and the result is small discrete red patches like that, what is described here as

"Tiny red dots under the skin that are a result of very small bleeds."

hopkinsmedicine.org/health/....

Despite the idea that a picture paints a thousand words, I always fail to find good images of them!! Wiki is about as good as it gets I'm afraid!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immun...

You just have the odd few - probably because your platelets aren't very low.

[OldTed60 in reply to PMRpro]

Wow thanks for this - I’d never heard of it before. I’ve had periods of time with exactly these type of spots on fingers and under nails. But when I show GPs or my rheumatologist they simply shake heads and say they are petechiae or purpuria - likely CTD related in my case. I do intermittently get low platelets - nothing drastic - but this is when my nose bleeds. It’s not a problem presently and I’m on Mycophenolate and Iloprost for scleroderma and sjogrens and my immunoglobulins A & G have lowered to just within range so I think it must be related. However it flares up randomly regardless of treatments and so I’ve concluded I’m just an odd bod and it’s maybe related to my hypermobile spectrum disorder and related vessel instability perhaps. I’m keeping hold of this link though!

[PMRpro in reply to OldTed60]

They are also more common when you take pred for any reason. But typical doctor - yes, they are purpurae/petechiae but the patient usually wants - needs - some direction as to WHY.