RESUMO
A 38-year-old man was found dead in bed dressed in female clothing with a mouth gag, handcuffs and bindings around the genitals and limbs. A respirator was also covering the mouth and nose. There were no suspicious circumstances and a diagnosis of death due to sexual asphyxia was made. Following the subsequent discovery of bottles of chloroform in the bedroom, head space analysis of blood confirmed the presence of chloroform, with a blood level of 33 mg/L. Death was, therefore, attributed to a combination of chloroform toxicity and upper-airway obstruction. Headspace analysis with follow-up quantitation may, therefore, be a useful adjunct to the investigation of such cases when devices such as respirators or gas masks are found with the body.
RESUMO
The application of solid-phase microextraction to the recovery of residues of organic explosives by headspace sampling is discussed. It was found that the technique was rapid and simple. Polydimethylsiloxane and polyacrylate resin were examined as adsorption phases and the latter was found to be more effective. It was found that non-volatile explosives (PETN, RDX, and TNT) should be extracted at about 100 degrees. Acceptable limits of detection were achieved using bench top quadrupole mass spectrometry and short extraction times (about 30 min). Increasing the extraction times to many hours resulted in significantly enhanced detection. Desorption of PETN from the solid phase was found to induce some decomposition of the explosive, but the technique was still valuable for the analysis of this compound.