Quality Control in Blood Alcohol Analysis: Simultaneous Quantitation and Confirmation

A 35-year-old man ingested an unknown amount of sodium azide and died within 2 h. The postmortem interval was 3 days. No alcohol or drugs were found in the blood and urine. Azide was derivatized in the peripheral blood, urine, and vitreous fluid with propionic anhydride. A portion of the headspace was injected onto a gas chromatograph with a nitrogen-phosphorus detector. Azide was quantitated in the peripheral blood (1.1 μg/mL), urine (7.5 μg/mL), and vitreous (43 μg/mL). The vitreous appears to be a better fluid for azide screening because of slower degradation.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicidal Fatality from Azide Ingestion

Meatherall

Oleschuk

2015

“…Blood sample sizes used for headspace gas chromatography tend to be between 50 and 500 µl [15,16,31,32]. Eighteen-gauge tubing is appropriate for liquid blood samples in this volume range regardless of their viscosity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of sample hemolysis on blood ethanol analysis using headspace gas chromatography

Kosecki

Brooke

Abbott

et al. 2021

Hemolysis, a common occurrence in blood collected for chemical analysis, has been reported to affect analytical test results for some analytes depending upon the material tested and the analytical technique employed. The potential for hemolysis to impact blood ethanol determinations using headspace gas chromatography of samples diluted with an internal standard was investigated. A sample of non-hemolyzed blood and a matched sample of hemolyzed blood were both analyzed thirty times for ethanol concentration using headspace gas chromatography. The mean ethanol concentration measured for the non-hemolyzed samples was 0.0639 g/dl. The mean ethanol concentration measured for the hemolyzed samples was 0.0642 g/dl. The calculated t value, 1.897, was less than the critical t value, 2.002, at a 0.05 level of significance. There was no measured statistical difference detected between the mean blood ethanol concentration determined for a hemolyzed whole blood sample and a non-hemolyzed whole blood sample.

“…The KIMS method was used on an Integra (Roche Diagnostics, Laval, QC) instrument to screen the urine for benzoylecgonine, opiates, and cannabinoids, whereas the CEDIA (Microgenics, Freemont, CA) method on a Modular (Roche) instrument was use to screen for benzodiazepines. A modified dual column method, described by Brown and Long (5), was used to screen and quantitate samples for alcohols by static headspace gas chromatography.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accidental Death from Hydromorphone Ingestion

Meatherall

Lee

Phillips

2010

A 15-year-old male orally consumed an unknown but fatal amount of sustained release hydromorphone. He was naïve to opioid use. No other drugs or alcohol were involved. The cause of death was acute aspiration-related bronchopneumonia, secondary to hydromorphone ingestion; the manner of death was accidental. Hydromorphone and hydromorphone-3-glucuronide were quantified in postmortem fluids by tandem liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The hydromorphone concentrations in the peripheral blood, urine, and vitreous humor were 57, 4460, and 31 ng/mL, respectively. The hydromorphone-3-glucuronide concentrations in the corresponding three fluids were 459, 36,400, and 40 ng/mL. Hydromorphone-3-glucuronide accumulation probably did not contribute significantly to the opiate toxicity. The proposed minimum lethal hydromorphone blood concentration in the nontolerant user is in the vicinity of 60 ng/mL.