Cardiac glycosides and metabolites--problems of recovery in tissue extracts. Separation of visible substance spots in the nanogram range (author's transl)]

The recovery measurements in rat tissues performed via i.p. injected radioactive digoxin derivates (3H-digoxin, 125J-digoxin derivative) showed that approximately 50% of the total glycoside content will be extracted. Thus, an addition of digoxin standards to drug-free tissues may lead to false negative determinations. By comparison of the radioactivity before and after extraction the following results were obtained: Recovery from tissues 3H-digoxin 50% 125J-digoxin 40% from serum 3H-digoxin 60% added to drug free tissue homogenates 3H-digoxin 85% After i.p. application of 15 mg/kg of beta-methyldigoxin to BD9 (Berlin)-rats the resulting tissue concentrations were extracted by Amberlite XAD-2. beta-Methyldigoxin and its metabolites digoxin and digoxinbisdigitoxide could be separated and distinguished from artifacts by fluorescence detection on HPTLC-plates with a detection limit of 60 ng/spot. Concentration determined by radioimmunoassay are in satisfactory agreement with HPTLC results.     

On the estimation of lay-time by measurements of rigor mortis

Measurements of the torgue to overcome rigor mortis on the legs of 101 male human cadavers at 5 degrees C are reported. There seems to exist an upper limit, which is dependent on the lay-time, above which no value occurs, but below which every value may be found. By calculating the 90% tolerance limits for lay-times grouped at 12-hourly intervals, this upper limit was found to decrease exponentially with lay-time. This may be used for the estimation of maximum lay-times from rigor mortis measurements.     

Animal experiments on the detection of an exposure to "chemical mace" (author's transl)]

To answer the question whether a negative result of gas chromatographic blood analysis for components of chemical mace proves that no or at most only slight tear gas exposure can have occurred, animal experiments were carried out. In the blood of 10 guinea pigs, which were exposed to the contents of chemical mace for 1--6 h, the solvants 1,1,2-trichloro-1,2,2-trifluorethane (freon 113) and 1,1,1-trichloroethane could easily be detected--even 23 h after the end of exposure or after a storage of the blood samples for 18 weeks--whereas the lacrimator chloracetophenone (CN) could not be found at all. In vitro experiments showed that CN relatively quickly reacts with components of blood. Therefore, blood samples should be analyzed for CN after withdrawal as soon as possible. In case of inhalation of the contents of chemical mace, i.e., after the comparatively mildest form of CN application, most probably no traces of the lacrimator at all can pass into the blood due to the quick reaction of CN with proteins of the respiratory surface of the lung.