Investigations concerning the threshold value between endogenous and exogenous GHB (liquid ecstasy)

The article describes critical investigations concerning the threshold value between endogenous and exogenous concentrations of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB/"liquid ecstasy") in human blood. The values of GHB in the blood samples of 50 blood donors and 50 postmortem cases were measured with a validated gas-chromatographic/mass-spectrometric procedure according to the guidelines of the GTFCh (Society of Toxicological and Forensic Chemistry). GHB-concentrations were found to range between 0.11 and 1.56 mg/L (mean value 0.54 mg/L/standard deviation 0.37 mg/L/coefficient of variation 68.4 %) in the donors' blood, and between 2.2 and 116 mg/L (mean value 32.4 mg/L/standard deviation 25.6 mg/L/coefficient of variation 79 %) in the postmortem samples, respectively.