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Carboxyhemoglobin elevation due to hemolytic anemia

Neil B Hampson1

  • 1Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.

The Journal of Emergency Medicine
|July 17, 2007
PubMed

A critically ill man with drug-induced hemolytic anemia and hepatic failure was hospitalized at a private academic medical center in Seattle, Washington. Intravascular hemolysis with associated endogenous carbon monoxide (CO) production resulted in elevation of the patient's carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) level to as high as 9.7%. Serial measurements of the patient's COHb level were obtained and compared with other conventional measures of hemolytic activity. With the availability of new non-invasive measurement technology to detect COHb elevations, emergency clinicians are likely to see COHb elevation as a manifestation of hemolytic anemia.

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