Wg. Zijlstra et A. Buursma, RAPID MULTICOMPONENT ANALYSIS OF HEMOGLOBIN DERIVATIVES FOR CONTROLLED ANTIDOTAL USE OF METHEMOGLOBIN-FORMING AGENTS IN CYANIDE POISONING, Clinical chemistry, 39(8), 1993, pp. 1685-1689
When cyanide poisoning is treated with a methemoglobin-forming agent,
oxidative metabolism is protected at the expense of the oxygen capacit
y of the blood.The affinity of methemoglobin for CN- is high enough to
compete with cytochrome oxidase, which protects the latter from becom
ing blocked, but all hemoglobin used for this purpose is lost for the
transport of oxygen. Therefore, the fractions of the various hemoglobi
n derivatives present in the blood should be carefully monitored durin
g this kind of treatment. After we had developed a multiwavelength spe
ctrophotometric method for this purpose, we studied the feasibility of
using a modified commercial six-wavelength hemoglobin photometer (Rad
iometer OSM3) for easy and rapid analysis of methemoglobin and methemo
globin cyanide in small samples of blood. All conditions appeared to b
e fulfilled for the construction of a practical multiwavelength photom
eter for reliably monitoring methemoglobin therapy in patients with cy
anide poisoning, even in the presence of carboxyhemoglobin, as often o
ccurs in fire victims.