Leukocyte larceny: a cause of spurious hypoxemia.

Multiple blood specimens with different leukocyte counts from two patients with extreme leukocytosis secondary to leukemia and unexplained hypoxemia were tonometered with a gas of known oxygen concentration and the decay of oxygen tension (PO2) was measured over time. The decay in PO2 in the first 2 minutes for blood with leukocyte counts of between 55.2 X 10(3)/mm3 and 490.0 X 10(3)/mm3 ranged from 13 to 72 torr. The degree of PO2 decay was blunted by placing the blood on ice and was obliterated by adding potassium cyanide. Thus, extreme leukocytosis secondary to leukemia can cause spurious hypoxemia and spurious lowering of the mixed venous PO2 due to oxygen consumption by leukocytes ("leukocyte larceny").