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Comment by Medicalidiot | Hacker News Reader

I'm assuming this is methemoglobinemia or something analogous to that. It's usually a congenital disease or one that develops because of medications. The two meds I can think of that would cause this are dapsone and benzocaine. It's an easily treatable disease where we have the patient take methylene blue, cool but not worrying with proper treatment.

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> I'm assuming this is methemoglobinemia or something analogous to that

You don't have to assume. "Woman, 25, diagnosed with methemoglobinemia" is the first sentence after the title.

> The two meds I can think of that would cause this are dapsone and benzocaine.

"Doctors say numbing agent for toothache to blame" is the next sentence after that. "Warren said the condition had been triggered by a numbing agent containing benzocaine" is further down.

> It's an easily treatable disease where we have the patient take methylene blue

"The woman was treated with an antidote, methylene blue" is in there too.

Either you know what you are talking about or read the article, as that is spot on

It's probably the only thing that causes your blood to turn blue, usually from numbing medication haha. Skin looks blue too, but patients are generally totally fine.

Your tissues can turn blue from excess silver:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria

But that probably doesn't affect the blood.

I didn't know it's treated with methylene blue. Kind of amazing how blue blood is treated with blue dye. What a beautifully simple example of biochemistry being counterintuitive.

Homeopathy works!

The differential diagnoses for methemoglobinemia are more varied than your comment suggests. Here is a reasonable list: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/204178-differential

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