If we talk to you about green blood, what do you think of immediately? To aliens, right? Imagine that it is quite possible that an ordinary human like you and me could see the color of his blood turn green, the site tells us. Neozone. The cause ? A disease called sulfhemoglobinemia.
Sulfhemoglobinemia is a very rare blood condition. It is characterized by an excess of “SulfHb” in the blood. It is a derivative of hemoglobin, the excess of which causes discoloration of the skin and mucous membranes. The latter become bluish or sometimes greenish. But the most surprising feature of sulfhaemoglobinemia is of course the change in color of the blood which turns dark green.
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From what we know, this rather strange disease is not really serious. This is because the unusual color resolves on its own when the red blood cells are renewed. But some extreme cases may require a blood transfusion.
The cause of the disease
The reason why there is too much SulfHb in the blood is taking too much of certain medicines. Mention may be made, for example, of sulfasalazine, which is an anti-inflammatory, sumatriptan, which is prescribed for migraines, phenazopyridine2, which is an analgesic, as well as sulfonamide antibiotics.
When too much of the compound in these drugs is found in hemoglobin, it causes a chemical reaction that results in the blood turning green.
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A surprise for surgeons
Among the best-known cases of sulfhaemoglobinemia was that of the patient from Vancouver. This case is proof that this disease is so rare that not all doctors know of its existence.
In 2005, a medical team in the middle of surgery in a Vancouver hospital noticed that the blood flowing from the patient’s arteries was all dark green. As we can read in the article published on the subject in the journal The Lancet, the doctors were shocked since they had never seen anything like it. After laboratory analysis, it was discovered that there were sulfur atoms in the hemoglobin protein.
Now you know how blood can turn into a green liquid, and it is quite an “earthly” phenomenon.
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