Fingers Turn Blue
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Reviewed By:

Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc

Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc (Family Medicine, Primary Care Physician)

Dr. Taylor is a Japanese-African American physician who grew up and was educated in the United States but spent a considerable amount of time in Japan as a college student, working professional and now father of three. After graduating from Brown, he worked in finance first before attending medical school at Penn. He then completed a fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control before going on to specialize in Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he was also a chief resident. After a faculty position at Stanford, he moved with his family to Japan where he continues to see families on a military base outside of Tokyo, teach Japanese residents and serve remotely as a medical director for Roots Community Health Center. He also enjoys editing and writing podcast summaries for Hippo Education.

Yoshinori Abe, MD

Yoshinori Abe, MD (Internal Medicine)

Dr. Abe graduated from The University of Tokyo School of Medicine in 2015. He completed his residency at the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Longevity Medical Center. He co-founded Ubie, Inc. in May 2017, where he currently serves as CEO & product owner at Ubie. Since December 2019, he has been a member of the Special Committee for Activation of Research in Emergency AI of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine. | | Dr. Abe has been elected in the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Healthcare & Science category.

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Content updated on Apr 4, 2024

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  • Color change in the fingers

  • My fingertips turned blue

  • Bluish skin on my fingers

  • My fingers are white

  • Bluish color of the skin

  • Pale fingers

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About the Symptom

Fingers turning blue (peripheral cyanosis) is when the hands, fingertips, or feet turn white or blue because they are not getting enough oxygen or blood.

When to see a doctor

Seek professional care if you experience any of the following symptoms

  • Hands and feet turn pale and blue

Possible Causes

Generally, Fingers turn blue can be related to:

  • Tracheal Stenosis

    Tracheal stenosis is an abnormal narrowing of the trachea, also known as the windpipe, that restricts normal breathing.

  • Tracheomalacia

    Tracheomalacia literally translates to floppy airway (trachea) and happens when the tissues of the airway instead of being rigid and stiff, are weak and floppy, causing breathing difficulties. This can be due to intrinsic issues with tissues (cartilage) of the windpipe (trachea) itself or due to something in the chest pushing on the airway such as a blood vessel. As there are highly variable severities and types of tracheomalacia, the symptoms vary greatly as well.

  • Buerger's Disease (Thromboangiitis Obliterans)

    This is a rare inflammatory disease affecting the arms and legs due to blood clots of the small and medium-sized arteries and veins. It is not due to blockage from fats and cholesterols. It tends to happen in younger men who are heavy smokers and can lead to complete loss of blood to fingertips requiring amputation.

  • Diabetic Gangrene
  • Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
  • Scleroderma

Related serious diseases

Sometimes, Fingers turn blue may be related to these serious diseases:

Doctor's Diagnostic Questions

Your doctor may ask these questions to check for this symptom:

  • Is your skin colored either purple or blue?

  • Are your fingers or toes pale?

  • Are your fingers hurting?

  • Do you feel any numbness or altered sensation?

  • Do your fingers and toes turn from pale blue to purplish-red color in the cold?

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References

  • Pahal P, Goyal A. Central and Peripheral Cyanosis. 2021 Oct 9. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan–. PMID: 32644593.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559167/

  • Gupta A, Gupta R, Kumar V, Samarany S. Blue Toes at High Altitude: Peripheral Cyanosis. Am J Med. 2020 May;133(5):573-575. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2019.08.057. Epub 2019 Oct 24. PMID: 31668899.

    https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(19)30878-2/fulltext

  • Baranoski GVG, Van Leeuwen SR, Chen TF. On the detection of peripheral cyanosis in individuals with distinct levels of cutaneous pigmentation. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2017 Jul;2017:4260-4264. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2017.8037797. PMID: 29060838.

    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8037797

Reviewed By:

Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc

Kenji Taylor, MD, MSc (Family Medicine, Primary Care Physician)

Dr. Taylor is a Japanese-African American physician who grew up and was educated in the United States but spent a considerable amount of time in Japan as a college student, working professional and now father of three. After graduating from Brown, he worked in finance first before attending medical school at Penn. He then completed a fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control before going on to specialize in Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he was also a chief resident. After a faculty position at Stanford, he moved with his family to Japan where he continues to see families on a military base outside of Tokyo, teach Japanese residents and serve remotely as a medical director for Roots Community Health Center. He also enjoys editing and writing podcast summaries for Hippo Education.

Yoshinori Abe, MD

Yoshinori Abe, MD (Internal Medicine)

Dr. Abe graduated from The University of Tokyo School of Medicine in 2015. He completed his residency at the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Longevity Medical Center. He co-founded Ubie, Inc. in May 2017, where he currently serves as CEO & product owner at Ubie. Since December 2019, he has been a member of the Special Committee for Activation of Research in Emergency AI of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine. | | Dr. Abe has been elected in the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia Healthcare & Science category.

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