A severely depressed 32-year-old man commits suicide by running his car motor in his closed garage for several hours. The mechanism of death in this case of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is through which of the following mechanisms?
CO combines with hemoglobin with an affinity 240 times greater than that of oxygen to form carboxyhemoglobin. At concentrations above 50% carboxyhemoglobin, cerebral anoxia, coma, convulsions, and death ensue. The other choices do not reflect the strong binding affinity of CO for hemoglobin.Diagnosis: Carbon monoxide poisoning
Displacement of oxygen on hemoglobin by CO
Hepatocellular necrosis
Inhibition of protein synthesis
Inhibition of the respiratory chain enzymes
Environment & Nutritional Pathology