6A the university daily kansan
news
wednesday,october 22.2003
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Congratulations to the Winners:
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And to all Finalist:
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By Amber Byarlay
abyarlay@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Fingernails give information about a patient's overall health, including chronic illnesses, such as emphysema, or skin conditions, such as psoriasis.
Looking at fingernails helps doctors to scratch the surface of student health.
Robert Brown, staff physician at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said most of the students he treats for fingernail disorders do not have signs of chronic disorders but do have problems, such as infections, that send them to the doctor.
under the nail. The gathered blood can look black and creates pressure that will cause pain, Brown said. To relieve the pressure, doctors create a small hole in the nail with a drill bit or by burning through the fingernail, he said.
Fingernails indicate student health
Fingernails give doctors and nurses information about how much oxygen is in a patient's blood. If the blood's oxygen level is appropriate, then the skin that is attached to the nail, or the nailbed, will be pink in color. To test for the nail's oxygen level, doctors will apply pressure to the
"What we see most often are problems related to fingernails if they pull a hangnail and get the tip of the finger infected," Brown said.
Though subungual hematoma will be located where trauma occurred, generally patients with a health problem like psoriasis will notice that several fingernails display signs of a health problem. However, some fingernail irregularities, such as vertical ridges, are normal, Brown said. Seeing some irregularities in the fingernails is not a reason to panic, he said.
nail and the nailbed will turn white. When the pressure is released the nailbed will return to pink in a few seconds, Brown said. While blood-oxygen levels are not a problem many college students have, this technique is used when a patient is thought to be in shock. If a person is in shock, the pink color will not return to their fingernails as quickly.
If an individual is suffering from emphysema, which lowers the amount of oxygen in the blood, he will develop clubbed fingernails, Brown said. Clubbed fingernails are thicker than regular fingernails and curve downward over the tip of the finger. According to the National Institutes of Health, clubbed nails can also be signs of heart problems as well as some cancers.
One health problem that Brown and other physicians at Watkins see is nail pitting caused by psoriasis. When nails are pitted, they appear to have small indentations, or pits, in them. Psoriasis, a skin disorder that can cause inflammation, redness and itchiness, occasionally shows up
"What we see most often are problems related to fingernails if they pull a hangnail and get the tip of the finger infected."
Robert Brown staff physician at Watkins Memorial Health Center
only on the fingernails. According to the NIH, psoriasis affects nearly 3 million people, and most people who suffer from it range in age from 15 to 35.
However, most students who go to Watkins don't go because of clubbed or pitted nails, Brown said.
"Usually they don't come in specifically about a nail unless it's had trauma or thickening," Brown said.
One example of nail trauma that Watkins treats is a subungual hematoma. This occurs after the nail has had trauma, like being hit by a hammer, and blood gathers
"I think the key is that such diseases could cause some nail changes," Brown said, "not to assume that if an otherwise healthy student has some mild changes of their nails that it means they have any of these diseases."
If a student sees changes in his fingernails that concern him, Brown suggested visiting a physician.
The Associated Press
Committee to review records law
Edited by Katie Bean
This month, a legislative committee is considering dozens of Kansas laws like the one that seals records of how the state and agencies it hires handled the boy's placement in his adoptive Overland Park home.
TOPEKA — Last month, a jury convicted the adoptive father of 9-year-old Brian Edgar of murdering the boy, a week after his adoptive mother pleaded guilty to the same crime.
"I think the public has a great interest in saying, 'How could that be avoided?' " said Sen.
David Adkins, who unsuccessfully pushed to have the records opened during this year's session.
Various government records are closed under Kansas law, including 46 in the Kansas Open Records Act itself. But another law approved in 2000 requires each exception to the open records law to be reviewed after five years, with any exception eliminated without legislative action to keep it intact.
The Special Committee on Local Government is scheduled to meet Friday to hear testimony about open records, to start the job of determining which exceptions survive beyond July 1, 2005
And the panel's chairman says the job will require the attention of several legislative committees.
"We shouldn't just, cartebianche, rubber-stamp something and let it slide through," Rep. Jene Vickrey, told The Wichita Eagle.
The rationale for some closed records appears obvious for privacy reasons: family financial information on student loan applications, medical or psychiatric treatment.
For others, the reasons are less obvious. Public agency records related to proposed legislation
are closed, unless the records have already been mentioned in an open meeting.
And some are just curious: People can't get a single list of a public utility's customers, but can get them, one at a time, by requesting specific names.
For now, representatives of local and state government agencies are waiting to see what direction the committee takes.
The bulk of the records closed under state law protect the private information of individuals and companies, said Don Moler, executive director of the League of Kansas Municipalities.
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