Pip, didn't you post about somebody who had green blood from a side effect awhile ago? I remember replying somewhere to it that it would be an epsisode of CSI or House this season.
Well, on last night's previews for next week's House, they were doing a blood draw and saying, "His blood is green!"
Stunned, the medical team immediately sent his blood for analysis. The test revealed the blood discolouration was caused by sulfhaemoglobinaemia, which occurs when a sulphur atom gets incorporated into the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin protein in blood.
Doctors suspected that the patient's migraine medication caused the condition. "It is possible that our patient’s arguably excessive intake of sumatriptan, which contains a sulfonamide group, caused his sulfhaemoglobinaemia," they say.
"The patient recovered uneventfully, and stopped taking sumatriptan after discharge. When seen five weeks after his last dose, he was found to have no sulfhaemoglobin in his blood," they added.
The Canadian doctors explain that sulfhaemoglobinaemia usually goes away as red blood cells regenerate. In very extreme cases a transfusion might be necessary, they say.
Mr Spock's green Vulcan blood was supposed to have been caused by copper replacing the iron in haemoglobin.
Journal reference: Lancet