This medical device enables a convenient and accurate method for the determination and detection of carbon monoxide in the blood.
A carbon monoxide (CO) blood test was used to detect carbon monoxide poisoning. Poisoning can happen if one breathes air that contains too much carbon monoxide. This gas has no colour, odour, or taste, so its presence is not easy to identify. CO is found in fumes produced any time one burns fuel in cars or trucks, small engines, stoves, lanterns, grills, fireplaces, gas ranges, or furnaces.
This test device looks for carboxyhemoglobin, (COHgb). This substance is created in blood when hemoglobin combines with carbon monoxide instead of oxygen. (Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues and transports carbon dioxide (CO2) from organs and tissues back to the lungs where it is exhaled.)
Measurements of the amount of COHgb in the blood are used to determine how severe CO poisoning is. This type of equipment is no longer used in medical offices.