Twenty-nail dystrophy
About twenty-nail dystrophy disease?
Twenty-nail dystrophy has other name as trachyonychia. It is a kind of longitudinal ridging of all the present nails; also seen or observed in lichen planus and alopecia areata. It often begins in early age of the child and includes striations on nail and also loss in the shining appearance of the nail. We could also say that this disease twenty-nail dystrophy is widespread trachyonychia including all of 20 nails found at body. This condition is described by ‘longitudinal ridging’ (alternating depression and elevation of the nail), loss of shine and luster and roughening and pitting (similar to sandpaper used for smoothing a surface) of nails surface.
What are the major signs & symptoms found in Twenty-nail dystrophy disease?
Twenty-nail dystrophy is mainly found in childhood of a person’s life but it can also be found in any stage of one’s lifetime. In one of the study it was found that the condition was mostly present evidently in young generation of males which are in between the age group of 12-20 years (52%). Very slight nails abnormalities could be found at the time of birth of child with this disease condition very slowly and slowly progressing over and over and take many years to make observable changes in the texture and shape of nails of finger and toe respectively. Mainly these typical symptoms and signs include:
- Nails start becoming rough, grubby and little brittle.
- Some of the nails may also become little distorted.
- Some nails also lose their own luster and also may change into a muddy, whitish-grey color (sand-blasted appearance)
What are the main causes of twenty-nail dystrophy disease?
The major causes of twenty-nail dystrophy is still unknown to us but in few of the cases it looks to be connected or associated also with some other different skin conditions for example we take as lichen planus, alopecia areata, eczema and psoriasis. In some of the few cases we find an autosomaly dominant like pattern of hereditary and inheritance too, in one of the report twenty-nail dystrophy had occurred in four males in three successive one after another generations. The other cases found of twenty-nail dystrophy around the world in past decades are of unknown origin and also started gradually in very early age of childhood. We found that these cases that were discovered tend themselves to be self limiting & may be resolved later slowly with time.
What accurate treatment or cure is available now days?
According to the doctors there is no exact treatment or cure for twenty-nail dystrophy. It is very much hard, difficult and tough situation to cure or treat twenty-nail dystrophy and very often results obtained are of no use to us or unsatisfactory. But then also some of the treatments and curing medicines which have been also tried to cure this disease are:
An important drug Griseofulvin and some other antifungal agents like Topical PUVA is also helpful. Some topical, systemic and intra lesional steroids are also used.
