Help with a debate: What color is blood?

[nursemommyof3]

My class is in debate over this. Half say it's always red (dark red, bright red). The other half say it's red when oxygenated, and blue when it's deoxygenated. Help!

[Atl_John]

bright red when oxygenated, dark crimson to dark blue when de-oxygenated (depends on the level of de-oxygenation, venous blood has a Partial Pressure of approx 40mmHg O2 so it still has some red to it) If its totally depleated of O2 then dark blue.

[maolin]

varying shades of purple - maroon to violet.

[stpauligirl]

My class is in debate over this. Half say it's always red (dark red, bright red). The other half say it's red when oxygenated, and blue when it's deoxygenated. Help!

Blood is NEVER blue....it's brighter red when oxygenated and slightly darker red when not oxygenated

[evbella]

Definately not blue. My A&P instructor made this very clear to us when I took the class. He felt the need to clarify that because all the models with the arteries & veins were blue & red only to help tell which was which- not demonstrating the true color.

Hope this helps

[bookworm1]

The idea that veinous blood is blue probably comes from the fact that we see blue lines from the veins, but our instructors also made it very clear that blood does not turn blue, there is always some oxygen in healthy tissues and blood.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

per my copy of taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary, 18th edition, published in 1997 by f.a. davis company, page 234. . ."arterial blood is bright red or scarlet. . .venous blood is dark red or crimson."

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood

Color

In humans and other hemoglobin-using creatures, oxygenated blood is bright red. This is due to oxygenated iron-containing hemoglobin found in the red blood cells. Deoxygenated blood is a darker shade of red, which can be seen during blood donation and when venous blood samples are taken. However, due to skin pigments, blood vessel coverings and an optical effect caused by the way in which light penetrates through the skin, veins typically appear blue in color. This has led to a common misconception that venous blood is blue before it is exposed to air. Another reason for this misconception is that medical charts always show venous blood as blue in order to distinguish it from arterial blood which is depicted as red on the same chart.

[AirforceRN, RN]

There seems to be a couple of differing opinions here, just thought I'd throw an interesting wrench into the works. A while ago a patient in Vancouver, Canada had an arterial line put in with GREEN return. How very odd. Here is the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/06/08/health-green-blood.html

My favorite line? "The reaction in the room? "We were very concerned, obviously," said Flexman, who is training in anesthesia at the hospital."

Yup, I would be too

[nursemommyof3]

Oddly enough, look at these poll results

http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=33&nav=messages&webtag=bcus5465&tid=90675

258 ppl think blood is blue

99 think it's red

and say other

Shocking!

[beckersSN]

when i bleed my blood is bright red... i'm sure everyone's is. in the past when i had my blood drawn into a vacutaner tube (so there was no oxygen contact) it was a dark purpley maroon color. like this but a hint of red in it.

[ALEXIS VALIENTE]

my research shows that blood is bright red when oxygenated and and bark blue when deoxygenated... but it still confuse me though