Why do veins appear to be

Anonymous

Forum Captain
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blue?

Without looking it up. I am curious as to why you think this is?
 

VFlutter

Flight Nurse
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Because veins carry deoxygenated blood. Duh. Haven't you ever had a anatomy coloring book.


Distribution of light through skin and SubQ tissue makes veins appear blue.
 

tacitblue

Forum Crew Member
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blue?

Without looking it up. I am curious as to why you think this is?

Simple. Something in the vein or surrounding tissue is reflecting back light at the wavelength perceived as blue. Other wavelengths are absorbed.
 
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Anonymous

Forum Captain
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Well you guys sucked the fun right out of that one lol

okay smarty pants.... tell me where the Dua layer is located in the body.
 

Anjel

Forum Angel
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Well you guys sucked the fun right out of that one lol

okay smarty pants.... tell me where the Dua layer is located in the body.

I cheated and looked it up. Lol very sneaky indeed since it was just discovered this year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 

MrJones

Iconoclast
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Well you guys sucked the fun right out of that one lol

okay smarty pants.... tell me where the Dua layer is located in the body.

I don't know anything about the Dua Layer, but I can tell you a thing or two about Dua's Layer.

;)
 

mycrofft

Still crazy but elsewhere
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The superficial veins we look for in IV access look bluish, yet the blood we draw is not blue. Maybe purplish or dull maroon. And folks with metheamaglobinemia look blue but their blood, again, when drawn looks dark dull red.
Congenital_Methemoglobinemia-4.jpg


And don't forget argyrosis.
pre_dermabrasion_half.jpg


I don't know. Why do one's lips (and sometimes skin) turn bluish in shock or hypothermia? I know it's a trick of the light and skin layers etc. but good, if basically useless, question. (Until you consider the effect of cold and methaemaglobinemia on photometric tests like pulse oximetry, which ought to be called photo-oximetry).

Darker skin makes this less a visible issue except that pulse oximetry is done through sublingual tissue where there is little pigment except nail polish.
 

Medic Tim

Forum Deputy Chief
Premium Member
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Well you guys sucked the fun right out of that one lol

okay smarty pants.... tell me where the Dua layer is located in the body.

Isn't that the new layer they found in the cornea? I seem to remember reading about it a couple months ago.
 
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