Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0016382 (flushing)
 6,387 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mechanisms of physiological gustatory sweating and flushing were investigated in 21 patients with a facial nerve lesion compromising parasympathetic outflow to the lacrimal gland, and in 13 patients undergoing diagnostic blockade of the stellate ganglion. Vascular responses and electrodermal activity (which reflects sweating) were monitored on each side of the forehead before and during gustatory stimulation with chillies or Tabasco sauce (derived from chillies). Vascular responses in the cheeks were also monitored in 14 patients with a facial nerve lesion. Sympathetic blockade increased gustatory vasodilatation but prevented gustatory sweating on the blocked side of the forehead. A facial nerve lesion did not affect gustatory sweating in the forehead or vasodilatation in the cheeks. However, a facial nerve lesion impaired vasodilatation in the forehead in all six patients who ate chillies, and also in four of five patients whose blood vessels dilated extensively on the normally-innervated side of the forehead when the patients tasted Tabasco sauce. These findings suggest that sympathetic sudomotor activity mediates physiological gustatory sweating in the forehead, whereas sympathetic vasoconstrictor tone inhibits gustatory vasodilatation in the forehead. A parasympathetic vasodilator reflex in the facial nerve contributes actively to gustatory flushing in the forehead, but some other unidentified mechanism influences vascular responses in the cheeks.
 ...
PMID:Mechanisms of physiological gustatory sweating and flushing in the face. 761 94

I measured facial sweating, flushing, and lacrimation during body heating in 10 patients with a facial nerve lesion compromising parasympathetic outflow. During heating, moisture accumulated in the symptomatic eye of patients with facial nerve palsy, particularly in patients with a long-standing lesion. Sweating and flushing in the forehead were symmetrical. These findings suggest that sympathetic neural discharge during heat stress influences lacrimation in the symptomatic eye of patients with a long-standing facial nerve lesion. Cross-innervation of lacrimal neurons by sympathetic fibers passing through the sphenopalatine ganglion or occupation of degenerated parasympathetic pathways by sympathetic fibers in the periphery could mediate this response.
 ...
PMID:Lacrimation induced by thermal stress in patients with a facial nerve lesion. 778 73