No abstract

New psychoactive substances (NPS) continue to appear on the drug market and alpha-pyrrolidinoisohexanophenone (α-PiHP) is one of the most popular cathinone derivatives. In this paper, we report a case of death caused by α-PiHP. Based on the toxicological results of the studied case along with autopsy, histopathological findings and crime-scene information, fatal intoxication with α-PiHP was accepted as the final cause of death. α-PiHP and its metabolite (OH-α-PiHP) were detected and quantified in all post-mortem materials (blood collected from the heart, the femoral vein and the dural venous sinuses, vitreous humour, cerebrospinal fluid, cerebral cortex, brainstem, cerebellum, bile, liver, kidney, heart, pancreas, spleen, thyroid gland, lung, adipose tissue, stomach and intestine). To date, this is the first case of determination of α-PiHP and its metabolite in post-mortem specimens. In our opinion, α-PiHP and its metabolite concentration database can be helpful in the interpretation of fatal cases.

This paper presents the results of a study on the applicability of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from the spinal canal in the post-mortem determination of ethyl alcohol. The present study reviewed data of autopsy cases (n = 45), in which ethyl alcohol was detected in CSF using gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (HS-GC-FID), to investigate ethyl alcohol concentrations in CSF, compared with blood. As a result of statistical analysis of the obtained data, a high positive correlation was found between blood ethanol concentration and cerebrospinal fluid collected from the spinal canal ethanol concentration. The Pearson correlation coefficient was statistically highly significant (p < 0.001) (r = 0.9503). The data obtained allowed us to conclude that cerebrospinal fluid collected from the spinal canal can be collected during an autopsy as an alternative biological specimen to assess the ethanol content. Cerebrospinal fluid collected from the spinal canal can corroborate and lend credibility to the results obtained for blood and, in special cases, when blood is drawn from putrefied bodies and may even be a superior specimen to blood for assessing ethyl alcohol intoxication status.