The detection of opiate drugs in nontraditional specimens (clothing): a report of ten cases.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_C5E70306EA19
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Publication sub-type
Case report (case report): feedback on an observation with a short commentary.
Collection
Publications
Title
The detection of opiate drugs in nontraditional specimens (clothing): a report of ten cases.
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences
Author(s)
Tracqui A., Kintz P., Ludes B., Jamey C., Mangin P.
ISSN
0022-1198[print], 0022-1198[linking]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
1995
Volume
40
Number
2
Pages
263-265
Language
english
Abstract
We present a series of 10 fatalities involving opiate overdosage, in which morphine, codeine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine were identified and quantified, not only in postmortem biological samples, but also in pieces of underwear taken from the bodies. Small tissue samples (about 1 g) were cut off from several parts of the underwear, stored at ambient temperature until analysis, then extracted by agitation in a mixture of chloroform/2-propanol/n-heptane (60:14:26, v/v/v) and assayed using GC/MS in the single ion monitoring mode. Morphine, codeine and 6-monoacetylmorphine concentrations were in the range 0.02 to 9.27 micrograms/g. These results indicate that the impregnation of underwear by sweat and sebaceous secretions and/or urine provides detectable levels of the drugs excreted by these ways. Even in the absence of biological samples, assaying pieces of clothing may bring some evidence about the drug abuser status of their owner.
Keywords
Adult, Clothing, Codeine/analysis, Female, Forensic Medicine/methods, Humans, Male, Morphine/analysis, Morphine Derivatives/analysis, Narcotics/analysis, Overdose/diagnosis
Pubmed
Create date
19/10/2010 16:27
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:41
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