Quantitation of Methamphetamine and Amphetamine in Postmortem Canine Tissues and Fluids

Abstract

The production and use of the highly addictive stimulant methamphetamine are a serious public health problem in the United States and globally. Because of its increased popularity with recreational drug users, accidental or intentional poisoning incidents in companion animals have become an unavoidable scenario in veterinary medicine. We describe a case of methamphetamine poisoning in a 4-year-old female German Shepherd with postmortem analytical quantitation of methamphetamine and its metabolite, amphetamine, in bodily tissues and fluids. Many tissues and bodily fluids can be tested to confirm methamphetamine exposure. More importantly, the higher concentrations found in stomach contents, liver, kidney and heart tissue suggest these are the most useful diagnostic specimens for postmortem confirmation of toxicosis in pets especially in cases in which source material is not available for testing or in cases with no postmortem evaluation.

Intoxication of dogs and cats with common stimulating, hallucinogenic and dissociative recreational drugs

“…Specifically, amphetamine refers to α-methylphenethylamine ( Heal et al., 2013 ). In contrast to amphetamines which have clinical benefits and specified usage, methamphetamine is a psychostimulant with strong addiction potential and is the second most frequently abused drug in the world ( Buchweitz et al., 2022 ). High availability of methamphetamine is caused by its low cost, simplicity of synthesis and highly addictive characteristics.…”

“…Median lethal dose for oral consumption in dogs is in the range 9–27 mg/kg ( Harris et al., 2022 ). Oral LD 50 for methamphetamine in dogs is 10 mg/kg ( Buchweitz et al., 2022 ; Zalis et al., 1967 ), however the drug is now being sold at a much higher purity than previous forms of 40% purity which could make the new forms drastically more toxic ( Chomchai & Chomchai, 2015 ). Methamphetamine intoxication in pets lacks official data for determining the incidence, but individual methamphetamine poisonings have been reported, including two cases, each concerning three patients with successful outcomes and one death in both case reports ( Buchweitz et al., 2022 ).…”

“…In one case report, ratio of metabolites to the parent compound was much higher than the reported ratio in humans. This could be due to interspecies differences in cytochrome P450 enzymes causing the drug to be transformed more quickly ( Buchweitz et al., 2022 ). Amphetamines can pass the blood-brain barrier and methamphetamine tends to reach the highest concentration in the brain, the most out of all related drugs ( Bischoff, 2018 ).…”

Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse) toxicosis in a dog

“…A veterinary diagnostic laboratory performed quantitative analytical toxicology on the patient's postmortem tissues, including the lung, kidneys, spleen, heart, liver, gastrointestinal tract, feces, stomach contents, and brain. The method used was consistent with previous reports for amphetamine analysis provided by this laboratory, with modifications to identify LDX 9,10 . In brief, standards used for this analysis included LDX (Cerilliant reference material certified at 1.0 mg/mL in methanol),c amphetamine (Cerilliant reference material certified at 1.0 mg/mL in methanol), c and deuterated (d11)‐amphetamine (Cerilliant reference material certified at 0.1 mg/mL in methanol).…”

“…The method used was consistent with previous reports for amphetamine analysis provided by this laboratory, with modifications to identify LDX. 9,10 In brief, standards used for this analysis included LDX (Cerilliant reference material certified at 1.0 mg/mL in methanol), c amphetamine (Cerilliant reference material certified at 1.0 mg/mL in methanol), c and deuterated (d11)-amphetamine (Cerilliant reference material certified at 0.1 mg/mL in methanol). c Drug-free High concentrations of amphetamine were identified in the kidneys, heart, and liver, with low concentrations of amphetamine in the spleen, gastrointestinal tract, feces, stomach contents, and brain (Table 1).…”