The restriction of all minerals in the diet enhancing paraquat toxicity is regarded primarily as the shortage of Mg.

This study compares the effect of the restriction of Mg with that of all-minerals in the diet on the toxicity of paraquat. To compare the severity of the toxicity, several biological values were examined; kininogen in plasma, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in liver, Ca level in kidney, and Mg levels in liver and kidney. Osteogenic disorder Shionogi rats that cannot synthesize vitamin C like humans did not display paraquat symptoms after receiving minute amounts of paraquat dichloride, i.e. 125 ppm in the diet for 8 days, and those biological values remained the same as those of the control. Rats fed with Mg at half of the recommended amounts also did not show any changes in those levels. The dosage of 125 ppm paraquat under the restriction of Mg, however, induced paraquat intoxication and increased those levels greatly. This result arises a question whether the intoxication is due to the imbalance of Ca and Mg or due to the shortage of Mg itself, because imbalance of Ca and Mg sometimes induces more serious effects than the shortage of Mg itself. Therefore, we fed rats an all-mineral restricted diet where the balance of Ca and Mg was maintained. The dosage of paraquat under all-mineral restriction, however, induced much more serious intoxication than that under Mg restriction. In conclusion, the shortage of Mg itself seems to be responsible for the induction of paraquat intoxication.

Sensitive determination of pethidine in body fluids by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

We have presented a simple and sensitive method for determining pethidine, a narcotic analgesic drug in body fluids by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). Pethidine and 4'-piperidinoacetophenone (internal standard) were extracted from body fluids with Bond Elut C(18) columns; the recoveries were above 85% for both compounds. The calibration curves for blood and urine showed good linearities in the range of 1.25-40 ng/ml. Its detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio=3) were estimated to be approximately 0.5 ng/ml of whole blood and urine.

Traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by the impact of a golf ball: a case report.

A 50-year-old male was hit by a high-speed golf ball on the left lateral side of his neck. He collapsed immediately and was sent to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The autopsy showed an extensive basal subarachnoid haemorrhage. Careful gross and histological examinations disclosed a rupture of the right vertebral artery at a site very close to the bifurcation. It was estimated that the impact of the golf ball on the left side of his neck resulted in the rupture of the contralateral vertebral artery, owing to its hyperextension. Although there are many reports on traumatic basal subarachnoid haemorrhage, the present type of trauma seems rare to our knowledge.

Sensitive analysis of alkyl alcohols as decomposition products of alkyl nitrites in human whole blood and urine by headspace capillary GC with cryogenic oven trapping.

The abuse of alkyl nitrites is becoming a serious social problem worldwide. In this report, a simple and sensitive method is presented for the determination of n-butyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, and isoamyl alcohol as decomposition products of alkyl nitrites in human whole blood and urine samples using capillary gas chromatography (GC) with cryogenic oven trapping. After heating a whole blood or urine sample containing each alkyl alcohol and t-butyl alcohol [the internal standard (IS)] in a 7-mL vial at 55 degrees C for 15 min, 5 mL of the headspace vapor is drawn into a gas-tight syringe and injected into a GC inlet port. The vapor is introduced into an Rtx-BAC2 medium-bore capillary column in the splitless mode at 0 degrees C oven temperature in order to trap the entire analytes, and then the oven temperature is programmed up to 240 degrees C for the GC measurements by flame ionization detection. These conditions give sharp peaks for each compound and the IS and low background noise for whole blood or urine samples. The detection limits of the analytes are 10 ng/mL for whole blood and 5 ng/mL for urine. Linearity and precision are also tested to confirm the reliability of this method. Isobutyl alcohol and methemoglobin could be determined from the whole blood samples of three male volunteers who had sniffed isobutyl nitrite.

An autopsy case of a stunt man who jumped into seawater riding a motorcycle: a case report.

We report a rare case of the death of a stunt man who jumped into the sea driving a motorcycle on location for a TV drama. A special ramp had been constructed for the jump. The stunt man and a passenger drove up the ramp at a speed of 60-70 km/h and jumped into the sea from a height of about five metres. Both men swam up, but the driver fell unconscious at the surface. He was sent to hospital, but did not recover. The autopsy revealed a deep laceration of the right axilla with complete rupture of the axillary artery, bone fractures of the right ribs and the right pelvis, and a small laceration of the upper lobe of the right lung. Other visceral organs were not injured. We finally judged that his cause of death was exsanguination due to rupture of the right axillary artery on the basis of the presence of a small amount of blood inside the heart and ischemic organs. All injuries were probably inflicted by a collision with the motorcycle upon reaching the water surface; the axillary injury might be due to the left handlebar piercing into the part.

Application of gas chromatography-surface ionization organic mass spectrometry to forensic toxicology.

Surface ionization (SI), which consists in the formation of positive and negative ions along the course of thermal desorption of particles from a solid surface, was first applied as a detector for gas chromatography (GC), GC-surface ionization detection (SID); we developed many new sensitive methods for the determination of abused and other drugs by GC-SID. Recently, Fujii has devised a combination of SI and a quadrupole mass spectrometer and named this system a surface ionization organic mass spectrometer (SIOMS), which is highly selective and sensitive for organic compounds containing tertiary amino groups. We have tried to apply this mass spectrometer to forensic toxicological study; so far we have succeeded in determining important drugs-of-abuse and toxic compounds, such as phencyclidine (PCP), pethidine, pentazocine, MPTP and its derivatives from human body fluids with high sensitivity and selectivity. In this review, we describe our recent studies on the application of GC-SIOMS to forensic toxicology.

An autopsy case of human skeletal remains with a numerical variation in thoraco-lumbar vertebrae.

Unidentified skeletal remains with almost every part of a single body were found in a closed shed; it wore a jacket, pants and underwears. It was brought to Hamamatsu University School of Medicine for autopsy. We estimated the victim to be male, 50-65 years old, 164-168cm high and at 5-10 years after death. The cause of his death was not clear. During the careful examination, we noticed that there was an extra vertebra (vertebra X), at the thoraco-lumbar region. The vertebra X was located between T12 and L1, and showed intermediate properties of T12 and L1. The presence of numerical variations in the thoraco-lumbar vertebrae should be more well-known for forensic scientists; the knowledge seems very important for the judgment whether the remains are of a single or multiple individuals.