Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: ATremor on 16/05/2010 02:33:18

Title: How can I turn my blood green?
Post by: ATremor on 16/05/2010 02:33:18

On a 2007 podcast it was reported that a Vancouver man oooozed green blood. It was presumed that this had occurred because of the man taking a much higher dose of his migraine medication that contained Sumatriptan.  Sumatriptan contains a sulfur group that was binding to the hemoglobin in place of oxygen.  I currently take the same medication so I've often wondered how much I'd actually have to take to have this same effect. Don't think I'd care to be a test subject, but it'd be a hell of a party trick on St. Patricks Day!  Would this be a common phenomenon with overdoses containing this compound? Thanks

Adam

Title: How can I turn my blood green?
Post by: Bored chemist on 16/05/2010 15:37:05

Sulfhemoglobin doesn't carry oxygen. You might want to think about the potential consequence of that.

Title: How can I turn my blood green?
Post by: ATremor on 17/05/2010 00:23:28

Not all of the RBC's will be bound to sulfur. I think on the podcast it mentioned he had 1 gram of sumatriptan for every liter of blood and his was green.

Title: How can I turn my blood green?
Post by: chris on 18/05/2010 12:45:50

Here's a link to the transcript of that news item from when it was covered:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news/news/745/

The original item was published in the Lancet:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60918-0/fulltext

Chris

Title: How can I turn my blood green?
Post by: ATremor on 21/05/2010 22:54:43

Very cool case. Thanks for the links Chris!