Pensioner, 70, breaks out in a blotchy purple rash across her entire body after freezing temperatures triggered a rare blood condition
- Patient, 70, broke out in spidery rash across entire body and felt dizzy for a week
- Tests revealed she had cold agglutinin disease and body was oxygen deprived
- The rare condition sees the immune system mistakenly attack red blood cells
An elderly woman broke out in a blotchy purple rash because of a rare blood disease triggered by freezing cold weather.
The 70-year-old, from New York, went to the doctor after feeling dizzy for a week and developing the spidery rash across her entire body.
Medics diagnosed her with livedo reticularis, a skin condition caused by spasms of the blood vessels and poor circulation near the surface of the skin.
A 70-year-old woman broke out in a giant blotchy purple rash due to a rare blood disease triggered by freezing cold weather
But keen to find the underlying cause, doctors from the Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, New York, took blood samples.
Normally a solid red colour, medics were shocked to find the unnamed pensioner’s blood was almost clear.
Her red blood cells, which carry oxygen, had stuck together and become clumpy.
Laboratory results revealed the woman was suffering from cold agglutinin disease.
Doctors were shocked when the patient’s blood was clear (left). They treated her by warming the blood (right)
Normally, certain proteins within the blood seek out and destroy invading pathogens, including viruses and bacteria.
But the condition, estimated to affect one in 50,000 people, causes them to attach themselves to red blood cells and bind them together into clumps.
This eventually causes red blood cells to be destroyed and leave people deprived of oxygen in their blood, leading to anaemia.
The medical team said the disorder had been triggered by the -9C (15F) temperatures in the woman’s native upstate New York.
The patient also revealed she had a viral infection two weeks prior to breaking out in the rash, which may have exacerbated the condition.
Normally cold agglutinin disease is caused by an underlying condition such as an infection, another autoimmune disease, or certain cancers.
Doctors don’t know why it sometimes occurs in patients who show no other symptoms.
But cold temperatures can send the immune system into overdrive, which doctors say may spur on the condition.
The patient was kept in hospital for a week where she was kept warm and given blood transfusions.
After the treatment, her ratio of red blood cells to total blood volume more than doubled.
Her anaemia and dizziness subsided within the week, but she still had the rash when she was discharged from hospital, doctors noted.
The team at Bassett Medical Center revealed the tale in the New England Journal of Medicine.