Is old stuff back? A fatal case of ethyl chloride sniffing

Background: Ethyl chloride (EC) or chloroethane is a colourless halogenated hydrocarbon gas regularly employed as a topical anaesthetic spray for pain-related injuries and muscle spasm in athletes. However, EC became also popular as a street drug in the 1980s. Brief inhalations of EC vapour can result in dizziness, euphoria, confusion, incoordination, hallucinosis, impairment of short-term memory and narcosis. Inhalation of higher doses, usually employed to \u201cget high\u201d, may be related to severe depression of the central nervous system. Indeed, toxicity and deaths have been reported so far. Case presentation: A 40-year-old man was found unresponsive after EC inhalation. EC determination was performed by dynamic headspace gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. EC was detected in the peripheral blood (0.156 g/L), central blood concentration (0.203 g/L) and the lung and brain (19 and 25 mg/kg). EC in the vitreous humour showed a sensitively lower respect to blood (0.018 vs 0.203 g/L). Conclusions: Considering the results of toxicological analyses of investigations on the death scene besides the absence of any signs of trauma, death was attributed to inhalation of ethyl chloride

Rapid determination of lithium in serum samples by capillary electrophoresis

Lithium salts are still one of the most popular therapeutic approaches to the treatment of bipolar disorders, notwithstanding the introduction of more modern, less toxic drugs. Because of a narrow therapeutic range, lithium serum concentrations must be strictly monitored during the treatment to avoid life-threatening neurotoxicity. For this purpose, methods based on flame photometry or ion-selective electrodes are usually applied. The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a simple method for the determination of lithium in serum based on capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect detection. A validation of the method was carried out, including a comparison with an automated routine method based on ion-selective electrode

La valutazione dell'idoneit\ue0 alla guida in relazione all'uso di sostanze stupefacenti e psicotrope. Studio epidemiologico della casistica veronese

Driving under the influence of drugs is a serious problem for road traffic safety. According to the Italian Road Traffic Code, the driving licence must not be issued to anyone who abuses, is addicted to, or suffers for dependence to illicit or psychotropic drugs. The diagnosis of such clinical conditions is performed by Provincial Medical Commissions of the Public Health Service also on the basis of drugs of abuse testing results on urine and/or hair samples. This study aimed at examining test results obtained by the Forensic Toxicology laboratory of the Department of Public Health & Community Medicine, University of Verona, upon request of the local Medical Commission, over the period 2003-2008 with the purposes of (i) defining trends in drug abuse in the examined population (ii) identifying specific risk factors for testing positive and for relapse, (iii) selecting the most effective and efficient analytical strategy to detect illicit drugs use. During the study period, cocaine was the most frequently detected illicit drug. The comparison of results from urine and hair testing confirmed the complementary features of these two biological substrates and the importance to have both data in order to increase the sensitivity in detecting illicit drug use. Moreover, this study showed that testing for driving fitness is an effective deterrent to illicit drug use, as only about one quarter of subjects testing positive at the first testing are still positive at the second testing

Determination of major ecstasy constituents in hair by capillary electrophoresis with UV and mass detection

The aim of the work was the development of a direct, chiral CE method for the separation of MDA, MSMA, and MDEA as well as of amphetamine and other congeners in hair

Zwitterionic HILIC stationary phase as a valuable alternative in separative techniques: Application to the analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid and its metabolite in hair

In this work, the physical and chemical properties of a novel zwitterionic LC stationary phase are applied to the development, validation and application of a new fast and reliable method devoted to the analysis of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) and its relatively new discovered glucuronide metabolite in hair. The obtained sensitivity, expressed as limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), were 0.033 and 0.10 ng/mg for GHB and 0.11 and 0.37 ng/mg, for GHB-glucuronide respectively. Linearity was assessed between LOQ and 50 ng/mg for both compounds. GHB and GHB-glucuronide extraction from hair matrix was maintained simple and consisted in an acidified-solvent incubation. No samples purification was required before LC\u2013MS/MS analysis. The method was finally applied to 65 real hair sample, 60 adults and 5 children below 2 years old. The obtained results highlighted that GHB concentrations were in the range 0.11\u20130.96 ng/mg (average 0.38 \ub1 0.25 ng/mg) in 44 cases (68%) while in 21 samples GHB concentrations were in the range between LOD and LOQ (0.033\u20130.1 ng/mg). GHB-glucuronide was detected in few samples (n. 3) at levels below LOQ. The interest on these molecules relies on the fact that GHB is both a naturally occurring inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and an illicit drug often experienced by victims of drug-facilitated sexual assault. GHB-glucuronide was firstly identified in urine by the group of Petersen in 2013 and, as per analogy to ethyl glucuronide, it was proposed as a longer biomarker for GHB intoxication

Rapid and direct determination of creatinine in urine using capillary zone electrophoresis

Background: In clinical medicine creatinine determination is used for the diagnosis of renal diseases and muscular dysfunctions. Also, in forensic toxicology creatinine concentration is used as a standardization tool for the quantitative measurement of therapeutic or illicit drugs and xenobiotics in urine. The present work was aimed at developing a robust and reliable CE determination of creatinine in urine, meeting the needs of simplicity, rapidity and low cost required by routine toxicological screening. Methods: The optimized buffer electrolyte was composed of 200 mM phosphate and 200 mM acetic acid (pH 3.8). The separation capillary (50 \u3bcm 7 10 cm of effective length) was made of naked fused silica. Separations were carried out under 25 kV potential. Urine samples were diluted 20 fold with water and directly injected. Direct UV absorption detection at 200 nm was employed. Results: Linearity was assessed in the range 0.2-32 mM. Precision tests resulted in CV's % below 0.56% for migration times and below 3.78% for peak area ratios (analyte/I.S.). Conclusions: The described CE creatinine assay meets the strict requirements of forensic analysis and looks particularly useful to test the possible adulteration or dilution of urine samples undergoing toxicological screening