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CASE REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Hematology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1368068

Unmasking Hemoglobin Köln: A Rare Cause of Discrepancies between Pulse Oximetry and Arterial Oxygen Saturation -A Case Report

Provisionally accepted
Awni Alshurafa Awni Alshurafa *Koutaibah Rida Obaid Koutaibah Rida Obaid Youssef Elhaji Youssef Elhaji Mohamed A. Yassin Mohamed A. Yassin
  • Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Discrepancies between pulse oximetry and arterial oxygen saturation can pose challenges in clinical assessment. Possible underlying causes include poor peripheral perfusion, skin pigmentation, motion artifacts, and conditions like unstable hemoglobin and methemoglobinemia. Unstable hemoglobin variants, such as hemoglobin Köln, are rare inherited mutations affecting globin genes, potentially disrupting the folding, assembly, or interactions among subunits in globin molecules and the essential interactions between heme and globin for oxygen-binding properties. In this case report, we present the case of a 44-yearold Arabic woman who underwent extensive investigations due to disparities in pulse oximetry and arterial oxygen saturation, ultimately leading to the diagnosis of the unstable hemoglobin variant, hemoglobin Köln.

    Keywords: Hemoglobin, Hemolysis, Unstable hemoglobin, Hemoglobinopathies, hypoxia

    Received: 09 Jan 2024; Accepted: 02 Apr 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alshurafa, Rida Obaid, Elhaji and Yassin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Awni Alshurafa, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar

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