Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning presents an interesting challenge for postmortem toxicology laboratories. The discontinuation of the CO-oximeter manufactured by Instrumentation Laboratories has left many forensic laboratories without this simple but reliable choice for the analysis of CO in blood. A comparable alternative that is quick and simple is analysis using a standard ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer, which offers sufficient precision and accuracy for the measurement of percentage carboxyhemoglobin (%COHb) in postmortem blood. The hurdle for laboratories then becomes the selection of an appropriate spectrophotometric method since a variety of procedures have been published over the years. Four methods were evaluated based on literature findings and/or the appropriateness for postmortem testing. These methods are based on (i) relating %COHb to the ratio of COHb and Hb absorbance of a two-component system (two wavelengths), (ii) the multicomponent analysis of all hemoglobin species, (iii) the multicomponent analysis of a two-component system, and (iv) derivative spectroscopy. While all four methods performed similarly in terms of typical validation requirements, the ability to more effectively handle decomposed samples and the ease of sample preparation afforded (v) the multicomponent analysis of a two-component system—the most suitable for routine postmortem testing.

中文翻译：

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分光光度法测定死后血液中碳氧血红蛋白的比较

一氧化碳 (CO) 中毒对尸检毒理学实验室提出了一个有趣的挑战。Instrumentation Laboratories 制造的 CO 血氧仪停产使许多法医实验室无法选择这种简单但可靠的血液 CO 分析方法。一种快速而简单的类似替代方法是使用标准紫外-可见分光光度计进行分析，它为测量死后血液中的碳氧血红蛋白 (%COHb) 百分比提供了足够的精确度和准确度。由于多年来已经发布了各种程序，因此实验室的障碍变成了选择合适的分光光度法。根据文献发现和/或尸检测试的适用性对四种方法进行了评估。这些方-组分系统，和（iv）导数光谱。虽然所有四种方法在典型验证要求方面表现相似，但更有效地处理分解样品的能力和样品制备的简便性提供了 (v) 双组分系统的多组分分析——最适合常规尸检。