OK, so there is no argyria Stage I, II, III or IV defined, but I would
like to suggest that defining different stages of argyria would be much
more useful than the single stage used today. I think that argyria is
greatly under reported because a person has to turn nearly completely
grey or blue for it to be reported as argyria. In actuality, once any of
the visible tissues turns grey/blue that person has argyria and it is
just a matter of how severe a case it is.
I would like to suggest different stages, such as those used for
cancer, to identify argyria and the extent of the argyria. The stages
for cancer are (from Wikipedia):
* Stage I cancers are localized to one part of the body.
* Stage II cancers are locally advanced.
* Stage III cancers are also locally advanced. Whether a cancer is
designated as Stage II or Stage III can depend on the specific type of
cancer; for example, in Hodgkin's Disease, Stage II indicates affected
lymph nodes on only one side of the diaphragm, whereas Stage III
indicates affected lymph nodes above and below the diaphragm. The
specific criteria for Stages II and III therefore differ according to
diagnosis.
* Stage IV cancers have often metastasized, or spread to other
organs or throughout the body
How about something for argyria like:
* Stage I - Argyria is localized to light browning of the gums or
light browning of the skin exposed to sunlight
* Stage II - Argyria is localized to fingernails or a slight
coloring of the eyes.
* Stage III - Argyria is also localized to the face and neck as a
blue/grey color or a significant darkening of eyes.
* Stage IV - Argyria is generally spread throughout the body or a
near or total darkening of eyes.
The stages I suggest may not be the best. From what I have read, it may
be difficult to determine a Stage I condition. Plus, I tried to cover
the coloring of the eyes (ocular argyrosis) in the proposed stages.
Maybe the eyes should be separate.
Does anyone else think that this might be better than the current single
declaration of argyria? Any suggestions for improvement?
Thanks,
Steve N
