Hemoglobin Affinity to Oxygen during Coronavirus Infection: New Faces of a Known Problem

The development of coronavirus infection prevents the transport of oxygen to the tissues through the mechanism of impaired hemoglobin saturation in the damaged lung. The change in the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen, which is the most important factor in compensating for oxygen deficiency in various pathological conditions, underlies the processes of adaptation to hypoxia. The question of the significance of the shift in the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve in this pathology is actively discussed, in which its shift to the left in the arterial blood and its shift to the right in the venous blood are noted, which in the conditions of the development of the hypoxic syndrome reflects the activation of the body’s mechanisms to compensate for oxygen deficiency. The change in its position is not specific for this pathology, but is determined by the severity of oxygen deficiency and the imbalance of the mechanisms of the cardiorespiratory system, as well as the peculiarities of the status of patients and the analyzed blood sample.