Mysterious Stigmata

"There was no obvious trigger for the bleeding, which could occur while she was asleep and during times of physical activity."
"During admission, we observed the discharge of blood-stained fluid from her face."
"[The diagnosis was hematohidrosis causing] spontaneous discharge of 'blood sweat'."
University of Florence researchers, Italy

"[Hematohidrosis was defined as] the occasional spontaneous oozing of arterial blood from the sweat glands [in 1895, by Hungarian dermatologist Mortiz Kaposi]."
"[Very few dermatologists have seen a case, absent from standard hematology textbooks] although two had witnessed bloody tears."
"After all the research that I've done, I am convinced of the plausibility and the possibility that it exists .... case reports start appearing in the 16th century, and quite distinct from anything to do with the crucifixion, or Christianity."
"There are mentions of the phenomenon as far back as Aristotle ... prior to the time of Jesus."
"Almost half the total output [case reports] from more than a century came in the last five years [published articles from 1880 to 2017]."
"The very fact that there are sporadic references to the phenomenon through time, scattered in many different places, tends to suggest to me that it must occur."
"A significant proportion of all the actual cases I could find have emerged in recent decades." 
Dr. Jacalyn Duffin, hematologist/medical historian, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

In an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, doctors in Florence, Italy, describe the case of a young woman with a history of spontaneous bleeding from her palms and face. (CMAJ)

Exceedingly rare, but noted on occasion throughout history, mentioned in the third century B.C. by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who wrote of sweat which] either looked like, or really was, blood", the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a report of Italian doctors who examined a 21-year-old woman who for three years suffered spontaneous, 'self-limited' episodes of bleeding from her palms and her face, though her skin was perfectly normal.

When the bleeding manifested itself, each episode took place between one to five minutes of time, becoming more intense in nature when the young woman was under emotional stress. Frightened and embarrassed by the bleeding phenomenon she was undergoing she became depressed and anxious, and loathe to appear in public. When she was examined by researchers from the University of Florence they could detect nothing awry with her skin.

She had no cuts, no bruises, and a disorder of the sweat glands which was familiarly known to be the cause of "coloured sweat", chromhidrosis, was ruled out, leading doctors to diagnose a rare phenomenon called hematohidrosis. This is a mysterious presentation, with no known cause. Some have hypothesized that the capillary blood vessels rupture, which function to feed the sweat glands "causing them to exude blood" when conditions of extreme physical or emotional stress are present.

In 2009, a medical research team published a report in the Indian Journal of Dermatology where they stated that "Acute fear and intense mental contemplation are the most frequent causes [of the bleeding]." In their report they cite a handful of instances of prisoners about to be executed, exhibiting those very symptoms. Professor Duffin of Queen's University searched medical literature to discover the publication of 42 related articles dating from 1880 to 2017.

There were 28 new cases appearing in peer-reviewed journals representing close to half of the reports she had investigated, and they appeared between the years 2004 to 2017. In each of those new cases reported upon, tests that were conducted affirmed the presence of blood appearing through the skin of the people involved. In one of the early reports, a Swiss doctor reported a 12-year-old boy with a high fever sweated blood, in 1627.

Doctors could find no obvious trigger for the bleeding, and said tests showed the 21-year-old patient had normal blood count and blood-clotting functions. (CMAJ)

Tests conducted on the young woman mentioned in the report out of University of Florence revealed her blood count and blood-clotting functions to be  completely normal, leading the examining researchers to rule out "factitious disorder"; which is to say faking a syndrome of sweat-bleeding. Yet not everyone is convinced that the phenomenon is feasible and has occurred as reported, attributing a more medically acceptable cause to the episodes.

"I can say with clarity that I've never seen a case like this — ever."
"And I can say that I've seen some of the worst bleeding disorders, and I've never seen them sweat blood."
"I think this person has a very bizarre anatomical defect on a microscopic level that is resulting in this very unusual symptom."
Dr. Michelle Sholzberg, co-director, Hemophilia Comprehensive Care program, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto

According to this medical specialist, the observed abnormality could conceivably originate in a dysfunction of the sweat ducts themselves.