Diagnosing carbon monoxide poisoning is harder than it sounds. In theory, carbon monoxide exposure leads to high levels of carbon monoxide in the bloodstream, and that’s the diagnosis. The reality is that carbon monoxide exposure is both concentration (how much carbon monoxide is in the air) and time (how long the patient was breathing it), which means that diagnosing carbon monoxide poisoning is a combination of recognizing signs and symptoms as well as measuring the amount of CO in the bloodstream.
