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M. D. ALTSCHULE, M.D.; W. M. SULZBACH, M.D.

Arch Neurol Psychiatry. 1949;61(1):44-55.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

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 . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BOSTON

From the Laboratory of Clinical Physiology, McLean Hospital, Waverley, Mass., and the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.