(NBC Chicago) — Cases of a mysterious skin condition that causes purple, blue or red discoloration in toes and occasionally fingers are popping up around the country, according to Northwestern doctors, leading some dermatologists to wonder if it may be connected to coronavirus.
Dr. Amy Paller, a dermatologist for Northwestern Medicine, said she has seen images of roughly 30 cases of the condition, dubbed by dermatologists as “COVID toes.”
Though Paller said testing is still needed to determine what exactly is causing the condition, the timing is hard to ignore.
“We don’t know for sure if it’s related to COVID-19, but when it’s so common right now during a pandemic and is occurring in otherwise asymptomatic or mildly affected patients, it seems too much of a coincidence not to be a manifestation of the virus for patients in their teens and 20s,” Paller, the chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatric dermatologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said in a statement. “I think it’s much more rampant than we even realize.”
Paller said a small portion of patients with the condition have tested negative for coronavirus “but we still suspect a relationship.” (…)