Journal of analytical toxicology
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As one of the most abundant toxic contaminants in the atmosphere, carbon monoxide (CO) plays a significant role in toxicology and public health. Every year, around half of the accidental non-fire-related poisoning deaths are attributed to CO in the USA, UK and many other countries. However, due to the non-specificity of the symptoms and often encountered inconsistency of these with the results obtained from measurements of the biomarker for CO poisonings, carboxyhemoglobin (COHb), there is a high rate of misdiagnoses. ⋯ Results showed a significant decrease in TBCO when samples were flushed (10-60%), whereas no constant trend was observed for COHb. Therefore, measurement of TBCO by AGS-GC-MS suggests the presence of more dissolved CO than previously known. This constitutes a first step into the acknowledgment of a possibly significant amount of CO present not in the form of COHb, but as free CO, which might help explain the incongruences with symptoms and decrease misdiagnoses.