Headache and drowsiness in a 22 year old student
BMJ 2008; 337 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a1481 (Published 24 September 2008) Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1481All rapid responses
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This endgames article dangerously indicates that arterial paO2 needs
to be abnormal in cases of carbon monoxide(CO) poisoning.
Partial pressure merely describes the tendancy for the gas molecules to
escape the solvent they are in. If the solubility of oxygen(O2) in blood
is altered by binding of CO to haemoglobin, the O2 content will vary but
the partial pressure will stay the same(as long as the gas mixture the
blood equilibrates against remains constant).
The lethal problem in CO poisoning is a reduced O2 CONTENT in blood
because oxygen's binding sites on haemoglobin are blocked by CO with
consequent insufficient oxygen delivery to tissues.
This will produce a lactic acidosis as a consequence of anaerobic
respiration, which may be the only abnormality on blood gas analysis if
carboxyhaemoglobin is not measured directly.
To be even more obtuse the paO2 MAY be slightly decreased at the scene of
the poisoning as a high CO concentration will dilute the concentration of
O2 in the inspired gas mixture that the victim is breathing. However as
soon as the patient is moved away the paO2 will reflect the new (normal)
ambient pO2 in air or hopefully the enriched oxygen mixture the ambulance
crew are administering!
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Arterial Blood Gases in Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
The role of routine blood gases in diagnosing carbon monoxide
poisoning is essentially minimal. Blood gases may be used, however, to
assess the severity of respiratory compromise by observing the degree of
acidosis.
The presence of normal pulse oximetry readings and low oxygen partial
pressures on blood gas analysis may very rarely be seen in patients with
low-flow sates (1). Elevated bilirubin (2) can also cause an
overestimation of oxygen saturations. Of course, such information needs to
be interpreted in the full clinical context.
References
1) Benson JP, Venkatesh B, Patla V.Misleading information from pulse
oximetry and the usefulness of continuous blood gas monitoring in a post
cardiac surgery patient.Intensive Care Med. 1995 May;21(5):437-9
2) Jensen LA, Onyskiw JE, Prasad NG. Meta-analysis of arterial oxygen
saturation monitoring by pulse oximetry in adults.Heart Lung. 1998 Nov-
Dec;27(6):387-408
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests