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
Mean corpuscular hemoglobin decreases when Hb synthesis is reduced, or when RBCs are smaller than normal, such as in cases of iron-deficiency anemia. Conversion to SI-units: 1 pg of hemoglobin = 0.06207 femtomol. Normal value converted to SI-units: 1.68 - 1.92 fmol/cell. ã Mean corpuscular hemoglobin The mean corpuscular hemoglobin , or "mean cell hemoglobin" (MCH), is the average mass of hemoglobin (Hg) per red blood cell (RBC) in a sample of blood. It is reported as part of a standard complete blood count. MCH value is diminished in hypochromic anemias. It is calculated by dividing the total mass of hemoglobin by the