fatandfast said:
The compound is obscure and should be easy to test for, if there is Hemmasist in any sample then an explanation is in order. Chain of custody and integrity of those with the sample should be examined to the highest degree but this is just what LA would need if he has nothing to hide. A drug w all kinds of chemical markers? Only on the market for a short time? Slam dunk for him if the blood is substance free.
I don't believe it is easy to test for. It's basically just hemoglobin, but in the plasma rather than attached to red cells. It's cleared from the circulation very rapidly, so unless a blood sample is given very soon after administration, levels will be very low. Moreover, I doubt if anyone knows how stable free hemoglobin is in blood samples that have been stored for years; and conversely, endogenous hemoglobin may to some extent be released from red cells during long-term storage. So I think it would be very difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the results of a test.
Added later: Thanks to Tyler's Twin for furnishing this link on a test for HBOCs:
http://www.clinchem.org/cgi/content/full/50/4/723
The authors claim they can detect several of the HBOCs tested several days after infusion. The test is based on a size difference between the HBOC and natural hemoblobin, so release of natural hemoglobin from red cells would not be a problem. However, I think there are still questions about the usefulness of this method applied to blood that has been stored for a long time. Under these conditions there is likely to be some degradation of both hemoglobin and HBOC, which would render a test based on size differences useless.