EFFECT OF CARBON DIOXIDE ON ACROCYANOSIS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

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Abstract
THE OCCURRENCE of cool blue hands in many patients with schizophrenia is well recognized. According to Olkon,1 cutaneous capillary microscopy over the finger nail fold during life in such instances reveals a decrease in the number of visible capillaries. The capillaries appear pale, bizarrely formed and, in places, irregularly dilated; blood flow through them is irregular and slow. However, the previous work of Schrijver-Hertzberger2 and the large number of earlier studies discussed in Suckow's3 exhaustive review strongly suggest that changes such as these are not constantly found in patients with schizophrenia and are not specific to that disease. A number of authors4 have also found evidence of stasis in blood drawn from the antecubital vein of schizophrenic patients, and Abramson and associates5 concluded from plethysmographic measurements that the peripheral blood flow is often low in the hands but not in other parts of the extremities