sense / nonsense of CO monitoring

[kelemvor]

Ummm. We exhale CO2. Cars exhale CO.

Have you checked it on a meter? Some of us get larger than others.

 

[Wookie]

Ummm. We exhale CO2. Cars exhale CO.

OK, fine, we make CO, but as a neurotransmitter. The amount is so tiny as to be dismissed for the purposes of this conversation.

 

[Wookie]

Have you checked it on a meter? Some of us get larger than others.

I'm thinking that the bulk of expired CO is from inspired CO. In a healthy human anyway. Are pregnant ladies considered healthy?

 

[kelemvor]

I'm thinking that the bulk of expired CO is from inspired CO. In a healthy human anyway. Are pregnant ladies considered healthy?

Sure, but I guess their blood is being used by more organs and stuff than others. I wonder if their oxygen levels ever dip because of it.

 

[wstorms]

Does Optimus Prime count?

 

[UTscuba]

Obviously it's not completely irreversible otherwise we'd all be dead after a few months or years of living in a world with combustion engines. I'm sure it's really a case of your body eliminating CO is a very slow process.

the binding of a CO molecule to a hemoglobin molecule is (effectively) irreversible (modulo thermodynamic constraints), but the bound hemoglobin then gets replaced with fresh hemoglobin every 90 days

 

[UTscuba]

Ummm. We exhale CO2. Cars exhale CO.

CO is pretty unstable and quickly decays to CO2 if there's O2 present, CO is made by combusting carbon with insufficient oxygen

 

[UTscuba]

Do you have a source for that. Since we exhale a tiny fraction of CO with each breath it suggests that it is not irreversibly bound.

not meaning to be an ass but a google search on 'preferential binding hemoglobin carbon monoxide' gives you about a million and a half sources.

and I think you may be confusing CO with CO2, we exhale CO2 as part of the respiration pathway not CO

 

[UTscuba]

OK, fine, we make CO, but as a neurotransmitter.

20+ years in neuroscience, including 10 working on retrograde transmitters, and I didn't know that

 

[grf88]

Ummm. We exhale CO2. Cars exhale CO.

We also exhale a tiny fraction of CO with each breath even when ambient is close to zero. It makes for a suitable bump gas for a CO monitor although a smokers breath is better.
The measurement of exhaled carbon monoxide in healthy smokers and non-smokers. - PubMed - NCBI