Red blood cell oxygen has been released the resulting deoxyhemoglobin is of a dark red burgundy color. However, blood can appear bluish when seen through the vessel wall and skin. Pulse oximetry takes advantage of the hemoglobin color change to directly measure the arterial blood oxygen saturation using colorimetric techniques. Hemoglobin also has a very high affinity for carbon monoxide, forming carboxyhemoglobin which is a very bright red in color. Flushed, confused patients with a saturation reading of 100% on pulse oximetry are sometimes found to be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Having oxygen-carrying proteins inside specialized cells (as opposed to oxygen carriers
Hemoglobin Hopkins-2 that causes sickle cell, which is a disorder in which red blood cells break down and become abnormally shaped. Hemoglobin S has two beta chains, whereas hemoglobin Hopkins-2 has two alpha chains. Hopkins-2 makes up 22% of hemolysates in single heterozygotes; therefore, there is the normal version of the gene in these patients. Hemolysates are the products of the destruction of red blood cells. Ho-2 also comprises 11% of hemolysates in ‘double’ heterozygotes, which are when the gene contains both Hopkins-2 and Hemoglobin S. There are currently multiple possible explanations as to how the Hemoglobin variant Hopkins-2 works. One explanation