Blood Carbon Monoxide Determination: A Review of Existing Methodologies

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic gas that has a higher affinity to hemoglobin as compared to oxygen. The rise in blood CO level can cause fatality as it impaired oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. The current state of the art techniques for determination of blood CO levels has their own unique strengths and limitations. This paper provides a review of the existing systems, and a comparison of their performance for CO determination. This work concluded that the capabilities and simplicity of photoacoustic (PA) system render it the optimal technique for noninvasive assessment of the carbon monoxide levels in humans. The system would be used in future in-vivo investigations of CO toxicity signatures using at least three visible light wavelengths. In addition, deep learning approach would also be used to discern the different severity of CO toxicity.