Odd Haemoglobins in Odd-toed Ungulates: Impact of Selected Haemoglobin Characteristics of the White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium Simum) on the Monitoring of the Arterial Oxygen Saturation of Haemoglobin

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2019 Dec 31

PMID 31887165

Citations 1

Authors

Julia K Reiners

Nadja Hellmann

Juliane Schmidt

Sabine B R Kastner

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Due to the current poaching crisis in Africa, increasing numbers of white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum) require opioid immobilisation for medical interventions or management procedures. Alarmingly, the results of both blood gas analysis and pulse oximetry regularly indicate severe hypoxaemia. Yet, the recovery of the animals is uneventful. Thus, neither of the techniques seems to represent the real oxygenation level. We hypothesized that unusual haemoglobin characteristics of this species interfere with the techniques developed and calibrated for the use in human patients.

Methods: Haemoglobin was isolated from blood samples of four adult, white rhinoceroses. Oxygen dissociation curves at pH 7.2 and 7.4 (37°C) were determined based on the absorbance change of haemoglobin in the Soret-region (around 420 nm). Absorbance spectra of oxy- and deoxyhaemoglobin extending into the infrared region were measured.

Results: Oxygen dissociation curves of rhinoceros haemoglobin showed the typical high oxygen affinity (p50 of 2.75 ± 0.07 and 2.00 ± 0.04 kPa for pH 7.2 and 7.4, respectively) under near-physiological conditions with respect to pH, temperature and DPG. The infrared absorbance spectra of oxy- and deoxyhaemoglobin showed only marginal deviations from standard human spectra, possibly due to the presence of a few percent of methaemoglobin in vitro.

Conclusions: Our data enables the development of a rhinoceros-specific blood gas analysis algorithm, which allows for species-specific calculation of SaO2 levels in anaesthetized animals. The inconspicuous absorbance spectra do not contribute to the systematic underestimation of SpO2 by pulse-oximetry.

Citing Articles

Reliability, clinical performance and trending ability of a pulse oximeter and pulse co-oximeter, in monitoring blood oxygenation, at two measurement sites, in immobilised white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum).

Mtetwa T, Snelling E, Buss P, Donaldson A, Roug A, Meyer L BMC Vet Res. 2024; 20(1):319.

PMID: 39014383 PMC: 11251122. DOI: 10.1186/s12917-024-04179-5.

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