Pallor - Causes and Symptoms

Definition

The loss of normal skin and mucous discolouration can occur suddenly or gradually, in generalized or circumscribed form. The causes of pallor are multiple and include: vasoconstriction or poor development of cutaneous capillaries, melanin deficiency, trauma, anemia and blood loss. This symptom can also manifest itself in the context of parasitosis and circulatory or respiratory disorders.

In anemia, pallor develops gradually; the skin takes on a greyish or yellowish tinge and can be associated with symptoms such as tiredness, palpitations, dyspnea due to modest efforts and headache.

When the pallor appears suddenly, however, it can indicate an episode of fainting (with sweating, muscular atony, weak pulse and arterial hypotension) or a hypoglycemic crisis, which also involves visual blurring, sweating, tremors with sense of hunger and state confusion.

The pallor may also arise following a cardiocirculatory shock, which results in a sharp drop in systolic blood pressure below 80 mmHg in a normally normotensive or hypertensive subject.

Even an acute arterial occlusion, usually caused by an embolus, can cause the affected extremity to show a clear demarcation between normal skin and pale or cyanotic skin. Furthermore, it causes intense pain, paresthesia and paresis.

The paleness of the fingers that appears with cold and stress, on the other hand, characterizes Raynaud's syndrome .