Abstract
-As an approach to the problem of localized segmental alteration in the autonomic or somatic nerve fiber activity, more than a hundred human subjects have been examined for the incidence and distribution of skin areas characterized by abrupt local deviations in "capillary fragility"-skin areas where petechiae count was different with large gradients above or below the level of neighbouring areas and where the local state of blood flow or blood vessels was presumably different with sharp demarcation from that in adjacent skin areas. Such areas (aberrant areas) were elicited even from apparently healthy individuals. Many aberrant areas simulated strips of sensory dermatomes, and their patterns in each individual were reproducible with limited fidelity over a period of weeks and months. The author presented several suggestive evidences that at least some aberrant areas were neurogenic in origin, arising on the basis of localized somato-autonomic alterations in the spinal cord or nerve roots.
