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Article #102

Thermal Burn Injury -- Why Does it Appear *White*?

#102
From: Radium
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 19:21
98 lines
5434 bytes
<"Burn" Topic Continued from Last Year!>

I hope you all had a happy winter break. For me, work starts on January
3rd on Tuesday.

I hope my persistence on this question about thermal burns is not
annoying anyone.

PD wrote:
> Radium wrote:
> > Bob wrote:
> > > On 16 Dec 2005 22:37:41 -0800, "Radium" <gluceg...@excite.com> wrote:

> > > >Okay but what other symptoms would occur? Would the skin texture
> > > >change? If so, how?

> > > By the rules you established, who knows.

> > Why do you say that? Wouldn't denaturing the proteins cause a change in
> > skin texture? I assume [but DON'T *know*] that the skin would soften
> > and liquify [given that -- under my rule -- the proteins can't
> > coagulate].

> > > I answered the melanin question because it is specific. One could
> > > study this in the lab... heat melanin under conditions as desired and
> > > see what happens.

> > I've seen burn wound look 'scary' white. Sometimes it looks like white
> > foam. Once, I was burnt by a hot plate. The wound did look white and
> > foamy for a while. Why does this happen? [NOTE: this is NOT under my
> > rules!!!]

> > > Skin is part of a complex biological system,

> > True.

> > > and your groundrules
> > > essentially say to ignore everything we know.

> > How so? It is possible in injure only one organ system w/out injuring
> > other systems.
> But that's not what you're proposing. An "organ system" is a collection
> of tissues. You are proposing damage to a specific *tissue* in an organ
> system, not to the organ system.

Okay. Sorry I didn't use the correct terms.

> If you scratch your arm, you will see two things happen. The area
> around the scratch will first turn whitish, and then it will turn red
> and inflamed. Both of these are stages in a highly complex immune
> response involving the release of histamines in the area of the wound.
> Neither of these changes is particular to the damaged tissue itself,
> but illustrates the complexity of the *organ system* that is the skin.

The red is definitely due to the immune response. It is part of the
inflammatory reaction.

Is the 'whiteness' due to the immune response? I doubt it but I could
be wrong. As I said, my burn injury [from touching a hot plate] looked
white. I am not sure why the injured skin looked white. My thinking is
that the heat damaged the dermal pigments in that area. Once again, I
could be wrong.

> In answer to your question about what would happen to your burnt
> tissues in a week, it would turn black and begin to smell very bad as
> bacterial decomposition sets in.

I am aware of this. However, in my rules, infection or microbial
decomposition canNOT occur. So if there was no bacterial [or any
microbial] decay, how would the burn look like?

Under my -- too good to be true in today's technology -- rules,
inflammatory reactions also canNOT occur. So how would the burn look
like?

> See "gangrene" and "frostbite" for
> what happens to dead tissue as a function of time.

Already know about this. However in my rules, this would not occur. The
injured tissue would either remain a "fresh" wound for life OR it would
spring back to a normal and un-injured state as soon as direct contact
with the open flame is stopped.

> PD

> > Of course, burning the skin would effect the rest of the
> > body. The nerve endings would be stimulated they would carry info to
> > the brain. The subject would then feel the pain, obviously. So yes,
> > affecting the skin can INDIRECTLY affect other organs [like the brain
> > in the case of tactile perception]. I never said that it wouldn't. I
> > DID say that it won't *injure* other body systems.

> > > What is the point? Sometimes people actually have a purpose for the
> > > question, then contrive a question that per se makes little sense, and
> > > does not lead to what is wanted anyway.

> > Well, I am interested in the hypothetical. Its like Sci-Fi sometimes. I
> > know it sounds crazy I am interested in wierd things.
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From: "Radium" <glucegen1@excite.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med.pathology,bionet.molbio.proteins,sci.physics,sci.chem,sci.med
Subject: Thermal Burn Injury -- Why Does it Appear *White*?
Date: 1 Jan 2006 11:21:20 -0800
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