Detection of drugs using XAD-2 resin. II:Analysis of liver in medical examiner's cases

Liver tends to concentrate drugs in quantities generally higher than those found in blood or other body compartments. This fact as well as the general availability of liver in postmortem cases makes it an important specimen for comprehensive toxicologic investigation. A scheme for the analysis of liver for drugs with tissue hydrolysis, XAD-2 resin extraction, and TLC has been developed and the parameters affecting recovery have been studied. The hydrolysis of liver specimens at various pH conditions resulted in an improved recovery for morphine by using pH 2 (2N hydrochloric acid). Recoveries of barbiturates, codeine, and meperidine were essentially the same at pH 2 and pH 3. A considerable loss (22 to 55%) was observed for four drugs (pentobarbital, morphine, codeine, and meperidine) as a result of drug binding to the tissue pellets during the process of centrifuging the liver homogenates. This method is recommended as a comprehensive screening procedure for drugs in liver tissue. For quantitative purposes, however, it is necessary to determine a correction factor for all the losses occurring at the various steps of the procedure. This procedure compared favorably with other procedures for liver analysis reported in literature.     

华人移美的过程与法律问题

董霖教授系美籍华人,早年曾求学于我国上海复旦大学,后获美国意利诺大学政治公法学博士、美国耶鲁大学荣誉研究员、美国全国性荣誉毕业生学会会员。历任我国前西北大学、河南中山大学、上海复旦大学、上海基督教教会联合大学、美国圣若望大学及纽约市立大学的教授。现为美国纽约市大研究院及皇后学院教授。     

反思古典民主的局限性——以古雅典的城邦民主为分析对象

城邦民主是古典民主的制度形态,而古雅典政制是城邦民主制的典型。以古雅典为例,古典民主的局限性主要表现为:否定个人独立和自由,把个人手段化为实现城邦理念的工具;缺乏政治责任,不能自觉反思和矫正制度和政策的缺陷;充满党派争斗,必然导致多数专政。     

韩国由威权向民主转变的影响因素

韩国20世纪80年代的两次民主运动产生了完全不同的效果.1980年的光州事件遭到镇压,而1987年的六月民主化抗争则成功地实现了总统直选制改宪.主要的影响因素在于:经济社会的发展为韩国在1987年走上民主轨道奠定了坚实的基础.1980年的惨案也迫使威权政府1987年在选择动用武力方面更加谨慎.统治者内部的分化也有助于在1987年通过妥协和平地向民主过渡.在外部因素方面,美国立场的变化至关重要.     

Determination of paraquat from formalin-fixed tissue

In this paper, a sulfuric acid digestion method and a clean-up technique by using cation exchange resin followed by XAD-2 resin has been developed for the determination of paraquat from formalin-fixed tissue at the submicrograms per gram level. Formalin-fixed tissue is dissolved by hot sulfuric acid, then paraquat is isolated and purified with cation exchange chromatography. The eluted paraquat forms an ion-pair with sodium dodecyl sulfate, it is then adsorbed on XAD-2 resin. Paraquat is eluted, extracted and reduced with solvent mixtures, NaCl solution and dithionite reagent, respectively. The calibration graphs of zero-order and second-derivative spectroscopy are linear in the range of 0.01-5.0 mg/kg. The relative standard deviation was less than 5% and the detection limit was 0.02 mg/kg based on 0.5-g samples. The sensitivity of the proposed method could be increased by using larger sample sizes. The method was precise and gave a quantitative recovery of paraquat spiked into formalin-fixed liver homogenates (78%). The proposed method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of paraquat in the formalin-fixed tissues of suspected poisoned cases. It has been shown to be of great value in the field of forensic toxicology especially when formalin-fixed tissue only is available.     

A fatality involving phentermine

A case is presented where phentermine, a sympathomimetic amine used as an anorectic drug, is believed to have significantly contributed to the death of an individual in whom other drugs were also found. Blood, urine, and tissue concentrations of phentermine are reported and compared to other cases in the literature.     

Further evidence for phenotypes and gene frequencies of nine salivary polymorphisms in Japanese population

Nine salivary polymorphic systems (Pa, Pb, Pr, Db, PmF, PIF, Ph, Amy1 and s-AcP) were examined using parotid and whole saliva from random Japanese individuals. The gene frequencies obtained were: Pa+ = 0.221, Pb1 = 1.000 Pr1 = 0.741, Db+ = 0.033, PIF+ = 0.715, Ph+ = 0.029, Amyv1 = 0.013 and s-AcPA = 0.217, respectively.     

Studies on asphyxia: lipids in the alveoli of rats in hypoxic state

Biochemical characterization in alveolar lavage fluids of rats which had inhaled 5% oxygen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide was studied in comparison with control rats. The protein content, consisting mainly of serum albumin, markedly increased in the hypoxic states. The phospholipid content also increased one and a half to two times as much as in the control rats. The phospholipids which increased in the alveoli were mainly pulmonary surfactant phospholipids, i.e. phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol. The phospholipid profiles did not appear to be affected by the leakage of plasma lipids. These findings indicate that pulmonary surfactant phospholipids accumulate in the alveoli of rats in the hypoxic states examined here.