Highly Accessed Letter

Carboxyhemoglobin levels during human inflammation

Mirrin J Dorresteijn1,2* and Peter Pickkers1,3

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Intensive Care, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Geert Grooteplein-zuid 10, 6525 GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Geert Grooteplein 21, 6525 EZ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

3 Nijmegen Intitute for Infection, Inflammation and Immunity, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Geert Grooteplein-zuid 10, 6525 GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands

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Critical Care 2012, 16:24 doi:10.1186/cc11295


See related research by Fazekas et al., http://ccforum.com/content/16/1/R6

Published: 23 April 2012

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

In agreement with the study by Fazekas and colleagues [1] in a recent issue of Critical Care, an increase in the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) has been observed after surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass and during sepsis [2]. Although inflammation induces heme oxygenase and the above-mentioned conditions do lead to inflammation, a clear association in humans has not been established, underlining the relevance of the remarks made by Cove and Pinsky [3] in the same issue of Critical Care. We would like to present data that illustrate that inflammation does increase CO in humans in vivo.