Endogenous production of carbon monoxide in normal and erythroblastotic newborn infants

M. Jeffrey Maisels; Ambadas Pathak; Nicholas M. Nelson; David G. Nathan; Clement A. Smith

doi:10.1172/JCI106463

¹Laboratory for Neonatal Research, Boston Hospital for Women, Division of Hematology of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, and Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

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Published in Volume 50, Issue 1 on January 1, 1971
J Clin Invest. 1971;50(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI106463.
© 1971 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published January 1, 1971 - Version history

The endogenous production of carbon monoxide (˙V_CO) in newborn infants was measured by serial determinations of blood carboxyhemoglobin during rebreathing in a closed system. Mean ˙V_CO in nine full-term infants was 13.7 ±3.6 μl CO/kg per hr (SD), and in four erythroblastotic infants ˙V_CO ranged from 37 to 154 μl CO/kg per hr preceding exchange transfusion. Mean red cell life-span (MLS) and total bilirubin production were calculated from ˙V_CO. MLS in normal newborns was 88 ±15 days (SD), and bilirubin production was 8.5 ±2.3 mg/kg per 24 hr. This is more than twice the amount of bilirubin normally produced in the adult per kilogram of body weight. Normal infants achieved a net excretion of bilirubin of at least 5.6 ±2.3 mg/kg per 24 hr (SD) as calculated from the bilirubin production and the measured rise in serum bilirubin concentration.

The measurement of ˙V_CO should prove valuable in the study of red blood cell survival and bilirubin metabolism in the newborn infant.

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