Review R1

The Present of the Detection of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Jing Ding, Hao Xu, Chaokang Gu, Hao Guo

Forensic Science Seminar · 2016 · Volume 6 · Issue 2 · pp. 1–5

Abstract

Abstract

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless and non-irritant toxic gas that is easily absorbed through the lungs. The essence of carbon monoxide’s toxicity is its competitive action with oxygen for binding to hemoglobin. The affinity of hemoglobin for carbon-monoxide is 200-250 times as great as its affinity for oxygen, and the bond of carbon-monoxide is almost 25,000 times stronger than the oxygen bond. Tissue hypoxia is the result of the impaired release of oxygen from the carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb), as well as a decrease in the body’s oxygen-carrying capacity. Carbon monoxide shows an affinity to other proteins within the prosthetic group of hem proteins (myoglobine and some mitochondrial enzymes).

CO toxicity is one of the common types of poisoning, and CO poisoning remains a common cause of both suicidal and accidental deaths in reported many countries. As a consequence, determination of the percent carboxyhemoglobin (COHb%) level in postmortem blood is a common analysis performed in toxicology laboratories. Therefore, the detection of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) in blood is important in clinical and legal medical fields. In this paper, the methods such as Gas chromatography (GC), Headspace-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS), CO-oximeter, UV/Vis spectrophotometry, Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy (FTIR) and other kinds of analytical methods used for determination of COHb in blood during recent thirty years were reviewed. The advantages and application conditions of these methods were analyzed to provide consultation for further research.

Keywords: toxicology analysis; carbon monoxide poisoning; carboxyhemoglobin (COHb); determination method; forensic science

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