Lethal inhalation of Popper

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A Combined Study on the Use of the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5 for Identifying Autism Spectrum Disorders at 18 Months

The capacity of the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5 (CBCL 1½–5) to identify children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at 18 months was tested on 37 children clinically referred for ASD and 46 children at elevated likelihood of developing ASD due to having an affected brother/sister. At 30 months the clinically referred children all received a confirmatory diagnosis, and 10 out of 46 siblings received a diagnosis of ASD. CBCL 1½-5 profiles were compared with a group of matched children with typical development (effect of cognitive level controlled for). The capacity of the CBCL 1½-5 DSM Oriented-Pervasive Developmental Problems scale to differentiate correctly between children diagnosed with ASD and children with typical development appeared dependent on group ascertainment methodology

Clinical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic evaluations of metronomic UFT and cyclophosphamide plus celecoxib in patients with advanced refractory gastrointestinal cancers

Aims. To evaluate UFT and cyclophosphamide (CTX) based metronomic chemotherapy plus celecoxib (CXB) for the treatment of patients with heavily pre-treated advanced gastrointestinal malignancies. Methods. Thirty-eight patients received 500 mg/mq2 CTX i.v bolus on day 1 and, from day 2, 50 mg/day CTX p.o. plus 100 mg/twice a day UFT p.o. and 200 mg/twice a day CXB p.o. Tegafur, 5-FU, 5-FUH2, GHB and uracil pharmacokinetics were assessed. Plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), soluble VE-cadherin (sVE-C) and thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) levels were detected by ELISA and real-time PCR of CD133 gene expression on peripheral blood mononuclear cell was also performed. Results Seventeen patients (45%) obtained stable disease (SD) with a median duration of 5.8 ms (range, 4.2–7.4). Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 2.7 ms (95% CI, 1.6–3.9 ms) and 7.1 ms (95% CI, 4.3–9.9 ms), respectively. No toxicities of grade >1 were observed. Pharmacokinetics of 27 patients (13/14, SD/progressive disease, PD) after the first treatment of UFT revealed that 5-FU AUC and Cmax values greater than 1.313 h x microg/ml and 0.501 microg/ml, respectively, were statistically correlated with stabilization of disease and prolonged PFS/OS. VEGF and sVE-C plasma levels were greater in the PD group when compared to SD group. CD133 expression increased only in the PD patients. Conclusion. Metronomic UFT and CTX with CXB in heavily pre-treated gastrointestinal patients were well tolerated and associated with interesting activity. Potential predictive pharmacokinetic parameters and pharmacodynamic biomarkers have been found

Identification and quantification of Phenobarbital in a mummified body ten years after death

This article reports the determination of phenobarbital in the mummified body of a 56-year-old man found completely mummified 10 years after his death. When alive, he was being treated for epilepsy with phenobarbital, and the recent analyses, performed with both immunochemical techniques and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), have revealed the presence of this substance in various tissues: the mean content of barbiturate in the mummified liver tissue was 93 lg ⁄ g, 216 lg ⁄ g in the heart, 17 lg ⁄ g in the lungs, 12 lg ⁄ g in muscles, and 31 lg ⁄ g in the skin. Preliminary screening tests with immunochemical techniques to evaluate the presence of other drugs were also performed. The sample resulted negative for all substances tested. Phenobarbital can be identified and quantified thanks to its excellent chemical stability and a hypothesis of what the concentrations in the fresh tissue could have been has also been reported

METODO E DISPOSITIVO PER ANALISI DI DROGHE D'ABUSO SU MATERIALE CHERATINICO

Il metodo consente di estrarre dalla matrice cheratinica (capelli) le sostanze stupefacenti eventualmente presenti in maniera da poter essere analizzate con metodi immunocromatografici presenti nel commercio e quindi di facile utilità per la pololazion

Simultaneous determination of morphine, codeine and 6-acetyl morphine in human urine and blood samples using direct aqueous derivatisation: Validation and application to real cases

Opiates play a relevant role in forensic toxicology and their assay in urine or blood is usually performed for example in workplace drug-testing or toxicological investigation of drug impaired driving. The present work describes two new methods for detecting morphine, codeine and 6-monoacethyl morphine in human urine or blood using a single step derivatisation in aqueous phase. Propyl chloroformate is used as the dramatizing agent followed by liquid-liquid extraction and gas-chromatography-mass spectroscopy to detect the derivatives. The methods have been validated both for hydrolysed and unhydrolysed urine.For hydrolysed urine, the LOD and LOQ were 2.5. ng/ml and 8.5. ng/ml for codeine, and 5.2. ng/ml and 15.1. ng/ml for morphine, respectively. For unhydrolysed urine, the LOD and LOQ were 3.0. ng/ml and 10.1. ng/ml for codeine, 2.7. ng/ml and 8.1. ng/ml for morphine, 0.8. ng/ml and 1.5. ng/ml for 6-monoacetyl morphine, respectively. In blood, the LOD and LOQ were 0.44. ng/ml and 1.46. ng/ml for codeine, 0.29. ng/ml and 0.98. ng/ml for morphine, 0.15. ng/ml and 0.51. ng/ml for 6-monoacetyl morphine, respectively.The validated methods have been applied to 50 urine samples and 40 blood samples (both positive and negative) and they can be used in routine analyses. © 2013 Elsevier B.V