If this is not your name, click here. Other Ophthalmic Surgery Organ Transplantation Orthopaedics Other Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Otitis Otorhino. Raynaud's syndrome is a disorder of the circulation in which blood vessels in the fingers constrict in response to cold or stress.
Blood flow is decreased and the fingers turn white or even blue.
In this week's issue of The Lancet , researchers report the use of a gel that increases the volume and flux of blood when applied to the fingers. Nitric oxide is known to cause blood vessels to dilate and can be generated by mixing sodium nitrite with ascorbic acid. They applied the gel to the fingers of one hand in 20 patients with severe Raynaud's syndrome and in 10 healthy controls. The researchers then measured changes in the volume and flux of blood in the capillaries by means of non-invasive techniques. Flux also increased significantly in the patients, but not in the controls.