Blood Cyanide Determination in Two Cases of Fatal Intoxication: Comparison Between Headspace Gas Chromatography and a Spectrophotometric Method^*

Abstract

Blood samples of two cases were analyzed preliminarily by a classical spectrophotometric method (VIS) and by an automated headspace gas chromatographic method with nitrogen-phosphorus detector (HS-GC/NPD). In the former, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) was quantitatively determined by measuring the absorbance of chromophores forming as a result of interaction with chloramine T. In the automated HS-GC/NPD method, blood was placed in a headspace vial, internal standard (acetonitrile) and acetic acid were then added. This resulted in cyanide being liberated as HCN. The spectrophotometric (VIS) and HS-GC/NPD methods were validated on postmortem blood samples fortified with potassium cyanide in the ranges 0.5-10 and 0.05-5 mug/mL, respectively. Detection limits were 0.2 mug/mL for VIS and 0.05 mug/mL for HS-GC/NPD. This work shows that results obtained by means of the two procedures were insignificantly different and that they compared favorably. They are suitable for rapid diagnosis of cyanide in postmortem cases.

Cyanides in the environment—analysis—problems and challenges

“…Looking at blood samples, it is necessary to separate cyanide ions from haemoglobin, and it can be achieved among others by microdiffusion in the Conway cell (Gambaro et al 2007). In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the analytical techniques, researchers use fibre-protected headspace liquid-phase microextraction or solid-supported liquid-liquid extraction combined with capillary electrophoresis (Mak et al 2005).…”

The Analysis of Cyanide and its Breakdown Products in Biological Samples

“…The determination of cyanide, thiocyanate, ATCA, and cyanide-protein adducts in biological fluids and tissues is useful for forensic, clinical, research, law enforcement, and veterinary purposes. Methods of analysis include spectrophotometry (37,59,62,74,78,81,89,90,93,105,120,130,133,139,141,143,, fluorescence (49,51,89,115,121,132,142,(175)(176)(177)(178)(179)(180)(181), chemiluminescence (77,109), electrochemistry (18, 56, 63-65, 68, 69, 73, 75, 79, 80, 106, 129, 138, 153, 182-197), gas chromatography (GC) (45, 53, 54, 61, 91, 95, 103-105, 107, 108, 111, 113, 114, 117, 119, 121, 125, 126, 128, 131, 135, 137, 152, 198-212), liquid chromatography (LC) (34,40,49,52,66,67,72,92,94,109,110,…”

“…One of the most common methods for analysis of cyanide, thiocyanate, and more recently ATCA is gas chromatography. Common detectors used for analysis of cyanide or its metabolites are the electron capture detector (ECD) (95,103,119,125,128,200,205,211,212,241,246), nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD) (45,53,65,105,113,114,117,121,126,131,135,137,152,202,(207)(208)(209), and MS detector (61,91,107,108,111,117,199,210). Although most of these methods are used for detection of cyanide in blood, some groups have applied GC techniques for other biological matrices and for the detection of thiocyanate and ATCA.…”

Oxidative Degradation of Methyl Green Dye by Cyanide Ion in Aqueous Perchloric Acid Medium; Kinetics, Thermodynamic and Mechanistic Approach

“…Some drugs contain cyanide or substances which can be converted to cyanide within the body, example sodium nitroprusside (Na 2 Fe(CN) 5 NO) which is sometimes administered intravenously during the critical care treatment of hypertension, even though toxic effects of this drug was reported by [7] that 0.25 ug/ml are consider normal and those between, 0.25 and 2-3µg/ml as elevated, but not ordinarily causing death, while concentrations above 3 µg/ml are consistent with death in the absence of other relevant or toxicological findings [8].…”