carboxyhemoglobin

(noun)

The stable complex of carbon monoxide with hemoglobin. It prevents the normal complexing with oxygen and thus leads to anoxia.

Related Terms

Examples of carboxyhemoglobin in the following topics:

  • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

    • Carbon monoxide mainly causes adverse effects in humans by combining with hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) in the blood.
    • Carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) can revert to hemoglobin, but the recovery takes time because the HbCO complex is fairly stable.
    • This results following a recurrence of increased carboxyhemoglobin levels and this effect may be due to a late release of carbon monoxide from myoglobin, which subsequently binds to hemoglobin.

  • Physical Characteristics and Volume

    • Carbon monoxide poisoning causes bright red blood due to the formation of carboxyhemoglobin.

  • Secondary & Tertiary Structure of Large Peptides and Proteins

    • When hemoglobin combines with CO, it forms a very bright red compound called carboxyhemoglobin, which may cause the skin of CO poisoning victims to appear pink in death.