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

Abstract

In the norm (i.e., the absence of ethyl alcohol in blood in sober people), sudden local cooling of the skin and soft tissues of different parts of the body from +37°С to +18°С and below (but not below 0°С) causes two-phase changes in blood vessels tone, blood filling, and intensity of blood supply and pain in the cooled tissues. In the first seconds of cooling, the tone of the muscular blood vessels begins to increase and their blood filling decreases, the skin color lightens, and in the cooled area of the body, acute soreness develops. After a few tens of seconds of cooling, spasm in the blood vessels reaches maximum level and their filling with blood decreases to a minimum, the skin turns white, and the soreness becomes severe. These changes persist at their peak for a few minutes, after which they begin to disappear, despite the persisting hypothermia. However, after 10–15 minutes of cooling, hyperemia develops in the hypothermia zone; as a result, the soreness disappears and the skin reddens. Notably, in the norm, sudden cooling of tissues causes irritation of the temperature receptors found in them. The resulting excitation of temperature receptors causes reflex spasm of blood vessels, which has an adaptive value, as it developed for temperature homeostasis of warm-blooded organisms. Acute pain accompanying cold spasm of blood vessels has been found to be due to mechanical squeezing of pain receptors located under the muscular layer in the wall of blood vessels. Conversely, the presence of ethyl alcohol in the blood or, in severe cases, alcohol intoxication changes the dynamics of blood supply in tissues at their sudden cooling: during cooling, blood vessels expand and overflow with blood without the initial phase of spasm and occurrence of pain. Moreover, hyperemia persists throughout and after the cooling period. That is, alcohol intoxication is manifested by the immediate development of hyperemia and skin redness in the cooled area of the body without the initial spasm of blood vessels and appearance of soreness and pallor of the skin in the area of cooling.