FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY - Bio Medical Forensics

This presentation will impact the forensic community and/or
humanity by demonstrating how pyrolysis coupled to GC/MS has the
potential to model metabolism, therefore, with this method, a broad range
of drugs may be analyzed in order to quickly detect metabolites that can be
used in forensic laboratory analysis. This technique may be a potential tool
to complement metabolic studies.
Smoked illicit drugs are of interest in forensic toxicology because
smoking may produce unique biomarkers as a result of metabolism.
Metabolic conditions can be partially modeled via pyrolysis, a process that
decomposes a chemical compound by extreme heat. A pyroprobe is a
thermal preparation device used to heat samples at high temperatures in
order to breakdown the compounds into oxidation products. The pyrolytic
products are then introduced into a gas chromatograph coupled to mass
spectrometry (GC/MS) for identification. The present work employed a
pyrolysis experiment with a pyroprobe coupled to a GC/MS. Advantages
of this analytical technique include rapid sample analysis (on the order of
30 minutes) and minimal sample preparation. Pyrolysis has been used in
forensic science for analyzing fibers, paints, photocopier toners and polymeric
material. However to date, pyrolysis has not been used widely for
toxicological research. This project will focus on the analysis of cocaine
and methamphetamine and more generally, potential applications of
pyrolysis to forensic toxicology. Pyrolysis has been previously carried out
by heating an aluminum boat in a reference pan or by using an apparatus to
simulate smoking of a tobacco cigarette laced with the analyte drug. Using
such techniques, the primary pyrolytic product of cocaine is anhydroecgonine
methyl ester (AEME) and methamphetamine is 1-phenylpropene,
respectively. These pyrolytic products have been analyzed using both high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and GC coupled to MS.
However, no research has been directed at simulating the metabolic conditions
by pyrolysis. The ability to differentiate between inhalation via
smoking versus exposure by an alternative method of ingestion is useful to
the investigatory information. This study focused on the more commonly
smoked drugs, cocaine and methamphetamine, along with the addition of
certain cutting agents including lidocaine, caffeine, mannitol, starch and
dextrose. Data obtained by pyrolysis was compared to the products from
metabolized cocaine and methamphetamine reported by literature. The goal
was to correlate degradation via pyrolysis to metabolic degradation as was
feasible and appropriate. Several such correlations were identified and will
be discussed. The effects of each of the following conditions were also
studied:
1) Mixing cocaine and methamphetamine in various alternating ratios.
2) Altering methanol and ethanol as solvents.
3) Varying pyrolysis temperatures and GC conditions.
Pyroprobes, GC/MS, Toxicology
K52 Exemplification of Continuous Quality
Improvement by Quality Surveillance:
Laboratory Incidents and Corrective/
Preventive Approaches
Arvind K. Chaturvedi, PhD*, John W. Soper, PhD, Patrick S. Cardona, BA,
and Dennis V. Canfield, PhD, Bioaeronautical Sciences Research
Laboratory (AAM-610), Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aerospace
Medical Institute, PO Box 25082, Oklahoma City, OK 73125-5066
After attending this presentation, attendees will be acquainted with
examples of laboratory incidents that could be used as a basis to improve performance
of a laboratory by taking incidence-driven corrective/preventive
measures.
This presentation will impact the forensic community and/or humanity
by exemplifying incidents that are commonly encountered in a laboratory.
Upon the rectification of those incidents by taking appropriate corrective/preventive
measures, the overall performance of a laboratory would be
improved. Monitoring of laboratory incidents is a realistic and simple
approach for quality surveillance, thereby for continuous quality
improvement.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Civil Aerospace Medical
Institute (CAMI) conducts toxicological evaluation of postmortem biological
samples collected from victims involved in fatal civil aircraft accidents. The
submitted samples are analyzed for the presence of primary combustion
gases, alcohol/volatiles, and drugs. Throughout the entire evaluation process,
a high degree of quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) is maintained,
and continuous quality improvement is always administratively sought.
Under this philosophy, as quality surveillance, an “Incident Reporting”
module was instituted in the CAMI Toxicology Database in October of 2000.
Any member of the CAMI Laboratory was allowed to report an incident, but
it was evaluated by designated QC/QA scientists on an incident-by-incident
basis. This process involved (i) categorization of types and severity of incidents,
(ii) best-educated estimates of dollar amounts and labor hours
($20.00/hour) associated with the incidents, and (iii) corrective/preventive
measures taken in response to those events. Incidents with a labor hour of <
0.5 were not included. To evaluate effects of the reporting on the laboratory
performance, the Toxicology Database was searched for incidents that were
reported during 2000–2004. Associated dollar amounts/labor hours and
types/severity of incidents were retrieved from the Database. Information
related to the corrective/preventive actions taken to rectify the incidentrelated
deficiencies was also collected.
These findings revealed that incident types pertained to accessioning,
analytical, clerical, procedural, report generation, security, and other deficiencies.
Severity of incidents, categorized as major, moderate, minor, and
undefined, varied from analytical-batch rejection to typographical, to power
outage. Corrective/preventive approaches included proofreading, counseling,
and repeating tasks. This aspect also included implementing modified or new
procedures and providing training to the laboratory members. Taking these
quality approaches reduced the number of incidents from 61 in 2001 to 8 in
2004, thereby reducing the laboratory cost from $4,400 in 2001 to $730 in
2004. The decrease in labor-cost hours was consistent with the decrease in the
incidents and dollar cost. Clerical errors were the highest in number, followed
by analytical and accessioning. Although incident severity was highly
prevalent in 2001, the overall severity decreased during ensuing years. Major
incidents were associated with analysis, followed by accessioning, which is
consistent with the very nature of postmortem forensic toxicology since these
are essential components of a toxicology laboratory. Based upon the incident
reporting, corrective/preventive measures—such as peer review, proofreading,
procedure modification, and new method implementation—were
undertaken. Training through mentorship, attending workshops/
meetings/symposia, and taking courses was also provided to the laboratory
members. These approaches led to a decrease in incidents during the period,
2002–2004. For example, there was a drastic decrease in clerical errors—no
such incidents were significant enough to warrant corrective measures after
2002. Average completion time per case decreased from 46 days in 2003 (199
cases) to 35 days in 2004 (180 cases) for positive cases and from 37 days in
2003 (283 cases) to 31 days in 2004 (269 cases) for negative cases, indicating
a tendency in the decrease in case completion time.
Findings from this study suggested that the quality surveillance
improved product quality, saved time and money, streamlined and implemented
procedures, thus enhanced the overall performance of the laboratory.
The “Incident Reporting” will continue to be an effective and important
aspect for improving quality of laboratories.
Toxicology, Laboratory Incidents, Continuous Quality Improvement
181 * Presenting Author