Determination of hemoglobin derivatives with IL 282 CO-oximeter as compared with a manual spectrophotometric five-wavelength method.

Hemoglobin derivatives as determined with the IL 282 CO-Oximeter correlated well with results by a manual five-wavelength method, which in turn had been checked against established methods for one or two derivatives. Measurement of total hemoglobin yielded almost identical results with both methods. As for oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin, and hemiglobin, agreement between the two methods was fair. Although the IL 282 CO-Oximeter has not been constructed for the determination of sulfhemoglobin, it appeared that the instrument can still give a strong indication as to the presence of this hemoglobin derivative. Results from the IL 282 for fetal human blood should be used with caution, especially because of the possibility of falsely high HbCO readings.