¤Methemoglobinemia¤
The presence in the blood of
methemoglobin, a form of hemoglobin that is useless for carrying oxygen and delivering it to tissues
throughout the human body.
Since hemoglobin is the key carrier of oxygen in the blood, its replacement by
methemoglobin can cause cyanosis (a slate gray- blueness) due to lack of
oxygen. A small amount of
methemoglobin is normally
present in blood but the
conversion of a larger fraction
of hemoglobin into methemoglobin, which does
not function reversibly as an
oxygen carrier, results in
perceptible cyanosis.
No comments:
Post a Comment