Value of hair analysis in postmortem toxicology

It is generally accepted that chemical testing of biological fluids is the most objective means of diagnosis of drug use. The presence of a drug analyte in a biological specimen can be used to document exposure. The standard in postmortem drug testing is a general unknown screening, followed by the gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric confirmation conducted on a whole blood sample. In recent years, remarkable advances in sensitive analytical techniques have enabled the analysis of drugs in unconventional biological specimens such as hair. The advantages of this sample over traditional media, like urine and blood, are obvious: collection is almost non-invasive, relatively easy to perform, and in forensic situations it may be achieved under close supervision of law enforcement officers to prevent adulteration or substitution. Moreover, the window of drug detection is dramatically extended to weeks, months or even years. The aim of this review is to document the current status of hair analysis in postmortem toxicology.     

Methadone concentrations in human hair of the head, axillary and pubic hair

The concentrations of methadone and its metabolites in the hair of the head, axillary and pubic hair obtained from patients receiving a daily maintenance doses, were determined. Comparison of the concentrations provides the highest values in the axillary hair, followed by pubic hair and the hair of the head.     

Radioimmunological determination of cocaine in human hair

A simple procedure for the determination of cocaine in human hair was described. After washing hair samples were crushed in 0.1 m HCl and incubated overnight at 45 degrees C. The acid extracts were neutralized with 1 m NaOH. Phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) was added to the extracts. The cocaine concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. Detection in hair was achieved in all hair samples obtained from cocaine users. This method appears to be suitable for the routine determination of cocaine.     

Evaluation of cuticula structure of the human hair

The cuticula is influenced by inner and outer factors. Through the combination of these factors the cuticula takes forms, which can be individual in same cases. But in most cases the marks of the cuticula are not enough specific to attach a hair to an individual person. Therefore the hair investigation has to be done in combination with other marks of the hair.     

Shampoo residue profiles in human head hair

Washing hair with shampoo results in an accumulation of shampoo components in the hair. Hair of individuals using different shampoos can be distinguished by analysis of shampoo residues. A method for extraction and analysis of such residues is presented. The hair is extracted using a methanol/water mixture, and the extract is analyzed by reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The detector system consists of two ultraviolet (UV) detectors connected in series. The method is nondestructive to hair and is sensitive enough to be applied to a single hair 5 to 10 cm in length. Residues from hair balsams are analyzed by this technique as well. The use of this method in forensic science examination of human head hair is demonstrated.     

Determination of methadone in human hair by radioimmunoassay

The concentrations of methadone in human hair were measured. The washed hair was cut in 1-mm pieces approximately, then incubated overnight at 45 degrees C with 0.1 m HCl. The extracts were alcalized by 1 m NaOH and diluted by phosphate buffer, pH 7.4. The methadone concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay. The method is simple, rapid, and practicable for routine determination.     

Removing and identifying drug contamination in the analysis of human hair

The procedure used in this laboratory for removing and identifying contamination of hair specimens with drugs is demonstrated by its application to hair contaminated by various experimental models. The models include soaking; coating with drug followed by sweat conditions for 6 h; and soaking in a very high concentration of cocaine followed by storage and multiple shampoo treatments. A multi-part wash procedure along with a wash criterion is applied to all samples containing drug above the cutoff. The failure of the wash criterion is a signal that the sample may be positive due to contamination rather than use, and in the absence of other over-riding evidence, the sample would be considered to be negative for drug use. This Wash Criterion has also been tested with hair from subjects demonstrated to be drug users by one or more drug-positive urines; in these studies, all hair samples from demonstrated users passed the Wash Criterion test.     

Examinations of ABO bloodgroupings of human hair

In order to bring into play the function of human hair ABO bloodgrouping in the field of medicolegal expertise on material evidence and raise its accuracy, the author, through a test on human hair of 500, makes some emphatic researches on the disposal of hairs, on the application of anti-A and anti-B serum, on the selection of red blood cell indicator and on the elution temperature as well. Five hundred samples of human hair have been examined upon the basis of the improved operation method and through the application of anti-A and anti-B serum, the titer of which being 1:128, and therein, fine results have been obtained.     

Enzyme typing of human hair roots.

Sufficient phosphoglucomutase activity was found to be present in plucked hair noses bearing either fragmentary or complete outer root sheaths to enable typing of individual roots by starch-gel electrophoresis. Hair roots collected by brushing were found to contain very little PGM activity. Other isoenzyme systems were detected in hair roots but in insufficient quantities to make typing feasible.     

Procedural bias in forensic science examinations of human hair

Several forms of expert forensic science evaluations exist that rely at least in part on the subjective opinion of the examiner. Human hair identification is one such examination. This paper considers possible sources of influence or bias that may be responsible for examiner errors. Data are reported of an experiment that compares the conventional examination procedure (known versus questioned samples) against an alternative procedure (a lineup of samples) designed to limit the influence of factors that contribute to error. The altenative procedure produced fewer incorrect conclusions (3.8%) than the conventional procedure (30.4%).     

Further evaluation of probabilities in human scalp hair comparisons

Placing value on associative hair evidence is an integral part of court presentation. A modified repeat of the hair probability study by Gaudette and Keeping has been undertaken, with steps taken to remedy shortcomings of the original work. The results of this study demonstrate that, with the application of rigid selection criteria, the frequency of coincidental matches in forensic science hair comparisons is low. It also demonstrates that routine hair classification is not feasible, because of inconsistency in examiner discrimination. The macroscopic selection of 5 to 13 mutually dissimilar hairs has been shown to be frequently unrepresentative of the microscopic range of features present in a known hair sample.     

Evaluation of nicotine and cotinine in human hair.

To validate data on tobacco use, the authors investigated the use of hair samples for quantifying nicotine and cotinine by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Hair was taken from 22 nonsmokers and 42 smokers, cut close to the scalp at the back of the head. The hair (about 100 mg from each subject) was incubated in 3 mL of 1N NaOH at 100 degrees C for 1 h. After this, the samples were extracted by diethyl ether. The drugs were separated on a 12-m BP-5 capillary column and detected using selected ion monitoring (nicotine, m/z 84; cotinine, m/z 98). Hair from nonsmokers and smokers contains nicotine and cotinine. Although it is difficult to determine an absolute cutoff level, an amount greater than 2 ng of nicotine per milligram of hair can be used to differentiate smokers from nonsmokers. In the population of nonsmokers, the influence of environmental smoke exposure was noted.     

毛发中海洛因及其代谢物的分析综述

对毛发中海洛因及其代谢物—6-单乙酰吗啡和吗啡的提取和检测分析进行了综述。其分析方法大致为6步:收集毛发,清洗毛发,分段,剪(磨)碎毛发,水解,提取净化,检测分析。     

The population of coloured fibres in human head hair.

In 2002 a population study of textile fibres in human hair was carried out using 26 volunteers in Cambridgeshire, UK. Over 12,000 fibres were recovered from a variety of hair lengths using low adhesive tape and classified according to colour, generic type and fibre length. The results of the study showed that the most common fibre colours were black/grey (48%), blue (29.1%) and red (12.7%), the least common being green, orange/brown and yellow which each accounted for less than 5% of the total. Natural fibres (mainly cotton) were predominant (72.3%) and man-made fibres were considerably less frequent. When colour and generic type were classified together, the most common combinations were black and blue cottons. The least common were the man-made fibre/colour combinations with the most frequent of these accounting for less than 7% of the sample. Fibre loads carried by long hair were found to be significantly less than that carried by short hair. The results of this study are in accordance with previous fibre population studies using other types of recipient surfaces and are likely to be influenced by factors such as seasonal and geographical variation.     

Drugs in prehistory: chemical analysis of ancient human hair

Concern about drug abuse in modern populations has led to the development of specific methods for identification of cocaine, opiates and cannabis in human hair. Drug use in prehistory can provide indirect evidence of interpopulational contact and social stratification. This paper reports drug evaluation in nineteen ancient hair samples from archaeological sites in northern Chile. Each sample was tested for the presence of traces of cocaine, opiates and cannabis, in order to establish a standard methodology for studies of drug use among prehistoric groups. Although results are negative, this absence of evidence could be due to two main causes: (1) the individuals evaluated did not use any drugs, which does not mean that other members of their cultural group did, or (2) the wide range of known drugs studied did not consider some group specific drugs, derived from local or imported plants, thus meaning that a greater drug range must be tested. In any case, our study confirms that drug testing in prehistoric samples is viable. However, in order to determine what kind of substances were used in prehistoric times new patterns that incorporate all drugs which are not part of the western pharmacopeia must be created. Finally, a methodology for the study of drug use among prehistoric groups using ancient hair samples is described.     

人体组织在非缓冲福尔马林固定剂中的STR检测时限

目的评估经非缓冲福尔马林固定不同时间后的人体组织STR分型有效性,了解各种人体组织在非缓冲福尔马林固定剂中可获得完全STR分型位点的时限。方法市售40%福尔马林溶液经1∶9稀释后在室温(15～20℃)下固定人体组织,不同时间后取样。以QIAamp DNA法和IQTMDNA System法提取DNA,用quantifiler humanTaqman探针法进行DNA定量,用常规16 STR位点的AmpFSTR identifiler kit和短小片段9 STR位点的AmpFSTR Min-iFiler kit进行PCR扩增,在3100遗传分析仪进行扩增DNA片段长度检测,用GeneMapper ID v3.2对STR位点检出率进行分析。结果福尔马林固定时间、组织类型以及DNA提取方法、PCR的DNA模板终浓度均影响非缓冲福尔马林固定后人体组织STR分型效能。DNA提取用QIAgen法为优,DNA模板终浓度的最佳范围在1～3ng/μL。各类型组织在非缓冲福尔马林固定剂中的降解速率有差异,肺组织的降解速率最慢,肝、肠组织最快。固定时间在4d内的组织可以获得常规STR的完整位点数;固定时间在15d内的组织可以获得miniSTR的完整位点数。结论非缓冲福尔马林固定人体组织时间是影响STR分型的最主要因素,其次组织类型、提取方法、DNA模板浓度及STR基因座的选择也是此类降解样品成功检测的关键因素。     

Disappearance of cocaine from human hair after abstinence

In this work the study of the disappearance of cocaine in hair is reported. The subject of the study is a woman who stopped the consumption of cocaine after a period of drug abuse of over 1 year. Hair samples were collected over a period of 10 months. During this time the absence of cocaine intake was monitored by the toxicological analysis of urine, performed every 2 days. After decontamination with methanol, the hair sample, cut in two segments (0-1.5 and 1.5-3 cm from the hair root) was added with cocaine-D(3) (internal standard), hydrolyzed and extracted with chloroform/isopropanol (9:1). The extract was evaporated to dryness, reconstituted in 25 microl of ethyl acetate and analyzed by GC-MS in SIM mode. The obtained results show that the incorporation of cocaine in hair decreased during the first 3 months after the last consumption and after this period of time no cocaine was found in the hair sections closest to the root.     

GC／MS同时分析头发中大麻酚类和△^9-四氢大麻酸

目的建立同时分析毛发中THC、CBN、CBD和大麻主要代谢物THC-COOH的方法.方法头发检材去污处理后,加入内标氯灭酸,经NaOH水解和正己烷:乙酸乙酯(9:1)提取,吹干后衍生化,利用GC/MS-SIM方法分析.结果THC、CBN和THC-COOH的最低检出限分别为0.01、0.05和0.01ng/mg.10例阳性头发中均检出THC成分,THC浓度范围为0J 1～8.84ng/mg,有3例未检出THC-COOH,检出者的量亦低于定量下限.结论同时分析头发中的大麻酚类和△9-四氢大麻酚是可行的,头发中THC-COOH浓度明显都低于THC浓度.     

A contribution to the discussion of probabilities and human hair comparisons

The paper by Gaudette and Keeping on "An Attempt at Determining Probabilities in Human Scalp Hair Comparison" in the Journal of Forensic Sciences (Vol. 19, No. 3, July 1974, pp. 599-606) has provoked considerable controversy. This paper highlights two of the sources of the controversy and shows how the probability, 1/4500, quoted by Gaudette and Keeping should be treated with caution. The necessity of the use of a likelihood ratio statistic is described. It is suggested that the hair examination form resulting from the responses to the questionnaire recently distributed by the authors and also the discussions at Quantico (Proceedings of the International Symposium on Forensic Hair Comparisons, 25-27 June 1985, Quantico VA) should be used to facilitate the collection of the data which will be necessary to enable a likelihood ratio statistic to be estimated effectively.     

Identification of human hair stained with oxidation hair dyes by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis.

This paper describes the gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric (GCMS) analysis of oxidation hair dyes from human hair. Diamines from the dyes were directly extracted from the hair in basic solution and aminophenols were extracted after neutralization. Both extracts were derivatised with trifluoroacetic anhydride and analysed by GCMS. Five components of oxidation hair dyes namely, p-phenylenediamine, toluene-2,5-diamine, o-aminophenol, m-aminophenol and p-aminophenol were clearly identified, whilst no other compounds originating from the hair dyes were detected. The presence and relative amounts of these dye components from hair extracts may assist in the discrimination of human hair especially in cases involving forensic science.