Auberon,

I'm always busy working on posts that discuss aspects of IRI that explain RSD, but always welcome the opportunity to talk about cyanosis.

CYANOSIS is a medical descriptive term for the bluish appearance of poorly oxygenated (generally) peripheral tissues. Precisely! In my thread Facts you may not know about RSD, I described how ischemia can cause cyanosis. My next post on that thread will discuss how ischemia causes severe hypersenstivity to lower ambient temperature and lower skin temperature in RSD. The third post will show how ischemia can cause every other sign an symptom of chronic (stage II) RSD.

It [cyanosis] is not a disease state. I think too much credence is being given to an innocuous sign / symptom of an underlying diseased state.

I dispute your contention that cyanosis is an innocuous sign: It is visible evidence of death, and nearly every incident of dark cyanosis is treated as an emergency that must be treated to save the life or limb of the patient. It is ignored in only one disease: RSD.

You list multiple causes for cyanosis, and you're correct; but the cause of cyanosis can be discovered, if only by excluding every other possible cause. Unless you wish to argue that one of the causes you mentioned is responsible for cyanosis in RSD, then I claim that IRI wins by default.

You can, of course, argue that IRI is not the cause of cyanosis in RSD, but in order to do that you will need to learn something about IRI. I suspect that if you do, you will conclude, as I did, that IRI does cause cyanosis in RSD.

In the years that I have been arguing that RSD is IRI, I have been personally attacked by several people (apparently outraged that someone WITHOUT a rectal thermometer dares to argue with "experts" who are legally allowed to carry one). Many of these attacks come in the form of deliberately misquoting me or summarizing my views in dishonest ways.

I don't assume that just because you wrote So I am confused as to how this has become the spectre causing RSD / CRPS. that you are deliberately and dishonestly summarizing my views, but I have been very careful NOT to say that cyanosis causes RSD.

Cyanosis does not cause RSD. It is a sign of ischemia-reperfusion injury, and that is the cause of this disease...Vic