Cherry-Pink Lividity
Definition
The bright pink discolouration of dependent tissues seen in CO and cyanide deaths. In CO the colour comes from COHb itself, in cyanide it comes from oxygenated venous blood because tissue cannot extract the oxygen.
Related terms
- Anion Gap
- Sodium minus the sum of chloride and bicarbonate in serum. A widened anion gap (above 16) in a comatose patient with unexplained...
- Carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb)
- The compound formed when carbon monoxide binds to haemoglobin at the oxygen-binding site, with an affinity 200-250 times greater than oxygen. Produces...
- Conway Microdiffusion
- A two-chamber glass cell in which an acid in the outer ring liberates HCN from the sample and the gas diffuses into...
- Headspace GC
- Gas chromatography in which the sample (blood, urine, vitreous) is sealed in a vial, equilibrated at a fixed temperature, and a portion...
- Saturation Kinetics
- Enzyme behaviour at substrate concentrations above the Km, where the rate of metabolism is constant rather than proportional to concentration. Ethanol saturates...
Explained in
- Gases and Volatile Poisons: CO, Cyanide, Methanol, EthanolThe bright pink discolouration of dependent tissues seen in CO and cyanide deaths. In CO the colour comes from COHb itself, in cyanide it comes from oxygenated...