Turgor

TURGOR (turgescence, turgor vitalis), tension of tissues. Normal T. is determined by the entire complex of physiological processes in the tissue or cell, i.e., the state of circulation, innervation, metabolism, and the anatomical integrity of the substrate itself. Naturally, in connection with fluctuations in these same factors, changes in T. are also observed, both in the direction of its increase and decrease. Thus, with venous congestion in organs, a characteristic hardening of them (induration) occurs, i.e., an increase in T., associated on the one hand with hyperemia of the vessels, and on the other with increased tone of the organ's stroma. Later, an increase in the mass of this stroma itself also occurs. A decrease in T. is observed in inflammation, edema, and degenerative changes in tissues. The morphological expression of this decrease can be the easy compressibility of tissue by weights, illustrated for example in the form of pits remaining after finger pressure, or in the form of violations of anatomical integrity (crushing, rupture), which is sometimes observed during life, for example, in spontaneous ruptures of an acutely infectious spleen. A decrease in T. accompanies all processes associated with increased autolytic processes in organs (such as the flaccid, easily torn septic, acutely anemic spleen), with anhydremic states (easy formation of skin folds in cholera patients), with the very fact of tissue aging, etc.