SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists
SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists
SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists
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MI8 <br />
COMPARISON OF ALCOHOL CONCENTRATIONS IN POSTMORTEM BODY FLUIDS<br />
Bruno Spinosa De Martinis*, Adriano Braga, Henrique Turin Moreira, Carolina Melo Candido de Paula<br />
and Carmen Cinira Santos Martin: Department <strong>of</strong> Pathology, Center <strong>of</strong> Legal Medicine, Faculty <strong>of</strong><br />
Medicine <strong>of</strong> Ribeir1io Preto, University <strong>of</strong>S1io Paulo. Rua Tenente Camo Roxo 2418, Ribeirao Preto, Sao<br />
Paulo, 14051-140, Brazil<br />
The determination <strong>of</strong> postmortem ethanol is probably one <strong>of</strong> the most important and frequently requested<br />
analyses in forensic toxicology. Because <strong>of</strong> its hydrophilic characteristics, ethanol distributes with body<br />
water and studies have demonstrated the existence <strong>of</strong> substantial site dependence. Factors such as quality<br />
and sampling site; trauma to the body; length <strong>of</strong> time between death and sampling; presence <strong>of</strong><br />
microorganisms in the body; diffusion <strong>of</strong> alcoholic beverages present in the stomach into the pericardial<br />
fluid; diffusion <strong>of</strong> ethanol in aspirated vomitus into cardiac blood; blood contamination and unavailability<br />
<strong>of</strong> blood samples must be considered to interpret the postmortem blood ethanol concentration. Due those<br />
factors, there is an enormous effort to find alternative sampling sites and correlations between blood<br />
alcohol concentration and other biological fluids to establish different procedures for specimens to sample<br />
for alcohol analysis.<br />
In addition, considering the medicolegal purposes, the implications <strong>of</strong> postmortem alcohol concentrations<br />
are extremely important, especially when they are found to be above the legal level for intoxication at one<br />
specimen and below that level at another.<br />
The use <strong>of</strong> vitreous humor as an alternative specimen for ethanol analysis in postmortem cases has<br />
increased, because it is stable, readily available, easily sampled and less susceptible to bacterial<br />
contamination.<br />
In this work it was determinated the ethanol concentrations in biologic fluids, collected during the autopsy<br />
examination from 103 cadavers victims <strong>of</strong> different cause <strong>of</strong> death, to establish a correlation between the<br />
concentrations <strong>of</strong> ethanol in vitreous humor with urine and blood specimens, sampled from femoral,<br />
subclavian and heart.<br />
Determinations <strong>of</strong> ethanol in the specimens were performed using capillary gas chromatographylflame<br />
ionization detector and headspace techniques.<br />
Statistical analysis <strong>of</strong>the results indicated that there were no significant differences among urine and blood<br />
samples, collected in different sites, with vitreous humor.<br />
Comparing the vitreous humor ethanol concentration with respect to Pearson's correlation test, it was found<br />
0.97 for femoral blood and urine, 0.96 for heart blood, 0.94 for subclavian blood. These results demonstrate<br />
that all the fluids tested with vitreous humor were significantly correlated with "p" (associated probability<br />
for the used correlation tests) being always lower than 0,05. It indicates that vitreous humor can be use as<br />
an alternative sample for urine and blood.<br />
Keywords: Postmortem Specimens, Multisite Sampling, Ethanol.<br />
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