Ethyl alcohol: Influence on the dynamics of blood supply of skin and other soft tissues during their sudden cooling

Abstract

It is shown that in norm (i.e. in sober people in the absence of ethyl alcohol in blood) sudden local cooling of skin and soft tissues of different parts of the body from +37 to +18 °С and below (but not below 0 °С) causes in the cooled tissues 2-phase change in the value of blood vessels tone, their blood filling, intensity of blood supply and feeling of painfulness. Thus from the first seconds of cooling the tone of blood vessels of muscular type begins to increase, their blood filling begins to decrease, skin color lightens and soon in the cooled area of the body there is a feeling of acute soreness. After a few tens of seconds of cooling, the spasm of blood vessels reaches maximum values, their filling with blood decreases to a minimum, the skin turns white, and the soreness reaches maximum values. These changes persist at their peak for a few minutes, after which they begin to disappear, despite the persisting hypothermia. But then, after 10-15 minutes of cooling, hyperemia inevitably develops in the hypothermia zone, as a result of which the soreness disappears and the skin reddens. It is established that in the norm, sudden cooling of tissues causes irritation of temperature receptors located in them. The resulting excitation of temperature receptors causes reflex spasm of blood vessels, which has an adaptive value, as it is evolutionarily developed for temperature homeostasis of warm-blooded organism. It has been found out that acute painfulness accompanying cold spasm of blood vessels arises due to mechanical squeezing of pain receptors located under the muscular layer in the wall of blood vessels. On the other hand, the presence of ethyl alcohol in the blood (the presence of alcohol intoxication) fundamentally changes the dynamics of blood supply of tissues at their sudden cooling: during cooling, blood vessels expand and overflow with blood without the initial phase of spasm and the appearance of a sense of pain. At the same time, hyperemia persists not only throughout the cooling period, but also after it. In other words, alcohol intoxication is manifested by the immediate development of hyperemia and redness of the skin in the cooled area of the body without the initial spasm of blood vessels, the appearance of a feeling of soreness and pallor of the skin in the area of cooling.