Chemical and toxicological studies in mushroom poisoning

Two accessory diagnostic tables reflecting the relationship between toxic effect of mushrooms and the nature and chemical structure of toxin have been developed for improving the diagnosis of mushroom poisoning. New color tests have been developed and conditions for isolation and chromatography in a thin adsorbent layer determined. The Schiff's test is specific for Amanita phalloides. This mushroom's toxins can be detected in the viscera after the maximal survival of 50 h, other mushrooms' toxins after 26-30 h.     

铊中毒的法医毒理学研究进展

由于铊盐溶液无色无味,且毒性剧烈,所以近年来利用铊盐投毒的案例时有报道。利用铊盐投毒隐匿性强,给案件的侦破带来很大难度,同时也因诊断不及时而耽误治疗。本文结合文献,从中毒方式、毒代动力学、毒理作用、中毒症状、中毒致死量、尸体检查所见、法医学鉴定及鉴别诊断等方面,对铊中毒的法医毒理学研究进展进行综述。     

Subacute fatal aluminum poisoning in dialyzed patients: post-mortem toxicological findings

The population of Cura?ao, Netherlands Antilles (133,000) shows a very high prevalence of end-stage renal disease (approximately 1 per 1,000). These patients are often treated chronically with haemodialysis. As the drinking water on the island is prepared by distillation of sea water, the haemodialysis fluid used to be prepared with tap water without further treatment. In 1996, the 27 patients of one of the dialysis centers on the island presented with nausea, vomiting, and hypercalcaemia in a short time span, which was initially diagnosed as 'hard water syndrome'. In spite of treatment with low-calcium dialysate, microcytic anaemia and neurological symptoms developed. Ten patients died of convulsions, sepsis, and coma. As aluminum (Al) intoxication was suspected, Al in serum (AlS) was measured. Ante mortem AlS was 808 microg/l (n = 7; range 359-1189); in the survivors AlS was 255 microg/l (n = 17; range 113-490). Normal AlS is < 10 microg/l, and <50 microg/l in asymptomatic dialyzed patients. The court requested post-mortem toxicological analysis of four patients. Al concentrations in liver, bone, and cerebral cortex were significantly increased as compared with background levels. Al intoxication was, therefore, considered to be the most likely cause of death in these patients. Investigations of the tap water supply revealed that a few weeks before the onset of the symptoms, a water conduit pipe to the dialysis unit had been replaced, which was lined with Al- and Ca-rich cement mortar. These ions leached into the distilled water and caused both Ca- and Al-intoxication through uptake from the dialysate into the patients' circulation. The symptoms of the latter were initially not recognized as they were masked by the symptoms of hypercalcaemia.     

Acute arsenic poisoning: clinical, toxicological, histopathological, and forensic features

This report describes a suicide case by acute arsenic intoxication via intravenous injection. A 30-year-old woman injected arsenic As (V) (sodium arseniate disodique: Disodium Hydrogena Arsenik RP) in a successful suicide attempt. Three hours following administration, the woman developed severe digestive symptoms. She was admitted to a hospital and transferred to the intensive care unit within 12 h of the massive administration of arsenic. Despite therapeutic efforts, over the next 2 h she developed multiorgan failure and died. A postmortem examination was performed. Pulmonary edema and congestion of liver were apparent. As (V) and As (III) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after mineralization of samples by concentrated nitric acid. Toxicological analysis revealed high concentrations of arsenic in biological fluids as well as in organs. Histopathological examination showed a typical indication of myocarditis. These findings were in agreement with acute arsenic poisoning. The symptoms developed by this young woman (intoxication by intravenous administration) were comparable to oral intoxication. The clinical signs, survival time, and administration type are discussed in light of the literature on acute and chronic arsenic poisoning.     

Higher education and police use of deadly force

The evidence on the impact of higher education on police use of force is mixed, perhaps because of the characteristics of different indicators or samples. This study compares the educational levels of officers who did and did not shoot their weapons, who shot following different types of citizen behavior, and who shot with and without justification over a seven-year period in the Kansas City, Missouri police department. Virtually no significant differences emerge, but the absence of differences even when controlling for assignment, age, and length of service may be due to the lack of older college graduates in the sample. Until more and older college graduates are available for study it is probably not possible to conclude what impact college, and different kinds of college education, have upon police use of deadly force.     

Police use of deadly force: Research and reform

Police use of deadly force first became a major public issue in the 1960s, when many urban riots were precipitated immediately by police killings of citizens. Since that time scholars have studied deadly force extensively, police practitioners have made significant reforms in their policies and practices regarding deadly force, and the United States Supreme Court has voided a centuries-old legal principle that authorized police in about one-half the states to use deadly force to apprehend unarmed, nonviolent, fleeing felony suspects. This essay reviews and interprets these developments.     

Gender-related differences in the pharmacokinetics of opiates

Previous studies have documented gender-related differences in a number of aspects of the pharmacology of opiates, including their analgesic activity, stimulative properties and generation of physical dependence. The current experiments were carried out with the aim to examine whether male–female differences exist in the blood and brain levels of opiates attained after their intraperitoneal injection to male and female Wistar rats. The tests were performed 5, 15, 45 and 120 min after the animal treatment with seized heroin. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method was developed to quantitatively determine opiate alkaloids in blood and brain regions (known for their high concentration of μ-opiate receptors): cortex, brainstem, amygdala and basal ganglia. Maximal contents of opiates in blood of animals of both genders were found in the second measurement time (15 min), the values measured in the males being significantly higher, which suggests a faster passage of the opiates from blood to brain tissue in female animals. The highest content of opiates in the brain tissue of female animals was measured 15 min and with male animals 45 min after the treatment, which also indicates faster distribution of opiates from blood to brain in the female compared to male rats. The highest proportion of opiates was found in the basal ganglia of the animals of both genders. The obtained results offer the possibility of selecting this part of the brain tissue of both males and females as a representative sample for identifying and assessing contents of opiates.     

Detection of blood opiates by fluorescence-polarization immunoassay

It was found possible to use fluorescence-polarization immunoassay (FPIA) in screening of opium drugs in blood and blood serum as a preliminary test. The results of the study of blood and serum samples by FPIA and chromato-mass-spectroscopy were compared. As a criterion of assessment of the preliminary study results we propose to use a cutoff point by serial production of the analysed blood samples of the threshold morphine concentrations (20 ng/ml for living subjects and 40 ng/ml--for corpses). The method of opiates screening in blood proposed is characterized by fast conduction, high specificity and precision, small amounts of the expert material.     

曲马多中毒及其毒理作用

曲马多为中枢非麻醉镇痛药,通过作用于μ阿片受体、抑制去甲肾上腺素与5-羟色胺再摄取等双重作用机制的协同作用。镇痛效果较好。在世界范围内被广泛应用于中、重度急、慢性疼痛的治疗。但目前有关曲马多不良反应与曲马多滥用中毒的案例报道正日益增多。本文从曲马多的镇痛机制、不良反应以及依赖滥用等方面,综述了导致曲马多中毒的可能因素,以期唤起人们对曲马多安全性的注意。     

Immunochemical methods in detection of opiates in tissues and organs

Conditions of isolation of opiates from tissues and analysis of the resultant extracts by immunochemical methods are discussed. The main characteristics of OPIATES U kits (Pharmatech) for polarization fluorescent immunoanalysis of cadaveric material (liver) are determined. Immunochemical methods for forensic chemical analysis for opiates are experimentally compared.     

Complex chemical and toxicological analysis of prosidol

Methods for measuring a Russian narcotic analgesic prosidol are suggested: thin-layer chromatography, microcrystalloscopy, gaseous chromatography with ionization flame detector, gas chromatography with mass selective detector, ultraviolet spectroscopy, high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detector, proton nuclear magnetic resonance used in chemical toxicological analysis, pharmacological analysis, and investigation of material evidence pieces.     

Fatalities associated with fentanyl and co-administered cocaine or opiates

Fatalities associated with fentanyl hydrochloride are increasingly seen in Massachusetts. Between September 2005 and November 2006, 5009 medicolegal investigations associated 107 deaths with licit or illicit fentanyl use, along with a co-detection of an opiate/opioid or cocaine/benzoylecognine, or both. Deaths associated with illicit fentanyl use occur in younger people (39.4 vs. 61.5 years) with higher fentanyl (17.1 ng/mL vs. 4.4 ng/mL) and lower morphine (76.9 ng/mL vs. 284.2 ng/mL) postmortem blood concentrations, and more frequent cocaine co-intoxication (65% vs. 3%), than deaths associated with illicit fentanyl use. A wide range of postmortem blood concentrations of fentanyl was detected (trace-280 ng/mL), with a minimum concentration of 7 ng/mL of fentanyl strongly associated with illicit use of fentanyl in poly-drug cases. The most commonly detected opiates/opioids in illicit fentanyl users were: morphine (29%), oxycodone (14.5%), and methadone (14.5%). Ethanol, cannabinoids, diazepam, citalopram, and diphenhydramine were each detected in greater than 10% of the licit fentanyl cases. Most fentanyl abusers died at their own home and their deaths were most often classified as accidental. Mapping of primary residences of decedents revealed conspicuous clustering of the illicit fentanyl use cases, as opposed to the random pattern in licit use cases. Fentanyl misuse is a public health problem in Massachusetts.     

Chemical toxicological identification of esfenvalerate

The optimal conditions for the isolation of esfenvalerate from the biological specimens have been determined. It was shown that this compound can be separated from the endogenous component of a biological material by means of liquid-liquid extraction and chromatography on a L 40/100 mcm silica gel column. The identification and quantitative analysis of esfenvalerate extracted from cadaveric liver and blood can be accomplished with the use of thin layer chromatography, UV and IR spectrophotometry as well as chromatomass spectrometry.     

Simultaneous quantification of opiates, cocaine and cannabinoids in hair

The present paper describes a sensitive method developed in our laboratory for the simultaneous analysis of opiates (morphine, codeine and monoacetylmorphine), cocainics (cocaine and benzoylecgonine) and cannabinoids (Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol and 11-nor-Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid) in hair samples. After decontaminating the sample with dichloromethane, two consecutive hydrolyses were performed in order to achieve the best conditions for extracting the three kinds of drugs from the protein matrix. First the opiate and cocainic compounds were extracted by means of a soft acidic hydrolysis with 0.1 N HCl at 50 °C overnight and organic solvent extraction at pH 9.2. The cannabinoids need a stronger basic hydrolysis with 11.8 N KOH for 10 min at laboratory temperature. After adding maleic acid, the cannabinoids were extracted with an organic solvent. The derivatization was carried out with heptafluorobutyric anhydride and hexafluoropropanol. Calibration curves were linear between 0.5–100 ng/mg of hair. Recovery and reproducibility were assured. The quantification limits ranged between 0.04–0.26 ng/mg of hair. Seventy hair samples from known drug abusers were cut into 1-cm segments and analyzed by this method. The ranges of measured concentrations (ng/mg) were 0.31–89 for cocaine, 0.1–5.76 for benzoylecgonine, 0.34–45.79 for morphine, 0.45–39.59 for codeine, 0.09–48.18 for monoacetylmorphine, 0.06–7.63 for THC and 0.06–3.87 for THC---COOH. The results of sectional analyses agreed with the self reported drug histories. The usefulness of this method is in assessing earlier drug consumption, and also at the same time obtaining a chronological profile of the consumption of these three types of drugs.     

Determination of opiates in postmortem bone and bone marrow.

Bone and bone marrow of a fatally poisoned heroin addict were analyzed by FPIA and GC-FID, immediately after death. A piece of the bone from the above case was buried for 1 year and analyzed by the same procedure. Morphine was detected in all specimens at concentrations of 195, 340 and 155 ng/g for bone marrow, bone and buried bone, respectively. A loss of 54.4% of morphine concentration was observed during 1-year burial. Such findings have potential forensic value in cases of skeletonized remains.     

Trends in the use of deadly force by police

Research in the area of deadly force by police has tended to focus upon or more of the following issues: (1) trends, (2) legal and/or policy implications, (3) the appropriateness of police usage, and (4) the apparent underreporting of police homicides. This paper examines police interventions relative to possible danger indicators in the working environment of police officers. It would appear for the period in question, 1964 to 1974, that police decreasingly used deadly force. A brief discussion concerning the possible reasons for this decline is provided.     

法医毒物检验技术方法的评价方式

评价方式是评价技术中的重要组成部分。根据法庭科学领域毒物检验方法的技术特性与质量要求,在明确评价目标与原则的基础上,以评价指标为核心提出合理化的、可操作的评价方式。建立有效的评价方式,旨在通过科学的评价活动获得客观的评价结果。