BACKGROUND:

We aimed to evaluate 39 patients with CO poisoning followed-up in terms of clinical and laboratory findings. The study focused on examining the relationship between clinical status, carboxyhemoglobin and lactate level as well as determining the existence of myocardial ischemia.

METHODS:

Thirty nine cases between 1.5 months- 17 years old were enrolled prospectively. Demographics, source of carbon monoxide, time of admission, complaints, history of syncope, previous oxygen treatments, clinical findings and blood gas analysis were recorded. To evaluate myocardial ischemia electrocardiogram, creatine kinase myocardial band and troponin-I levels were measured. Echocardiogram was applied to cases with elevated myocardial enzymes. The relationship between neurological symptoms and cardiac damage with carboxyhemoglobin and lactate levels were evaluated.

RESULTS:

There was a positive correlation between carboxyhemoglobin and lactate levels of cases who had not taken oxygen before admission (r=0.621, p).

CONCLUSION:

Elevated lactate level is correlated with neurological symptoms and should be consider in carbon monoxide poisoning. While carboxyhemoglobin level is an important factor to diagnose and follow-up the measurement of carboxyhemoglobin levels alone may be insufficient to rule out the diagnosis. There should be studies with larger group of patients regarding the need of routine myocardial enzymes evaluation in cases that do not have clinical and electrocardiographic findings.

Keywords: Carbon monoxide, poisoning, children, lactate, myocardial damage