Development and validation of a LC/MS method for the determination of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol and 11-carboxy-Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol in the larvae of the blowfly Lucilia sericata: Forensic applications.

In a number of forensic toxicological cases, Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its metabolite 11-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THCA) are frequently considered as contributor factors to the event. To that, a liquid chromatographic mass spectrometric method is described for the identification and quantitation of THC and its metabolite THCA in the forensically important larvae of L. sericata. Larvae of Lucilia sericata were fortified with varying concentrations of THC and THCA covering the calibration range between 10 and 500pg/mg. For the isolation of the analytes from larvae, several extraction techniques were evaluated and finally liquid-liquid extraction under acidic pH was selected using hexane-ethyl acetate (50:50, v/v) as extraction solvent. For the chromatographic separation, a Waters Symmetry® C18 analytical column was used while the mobile phase was acetonitrile-ammonium acetate (2mM) (30:70, v/v). The detection was performed using electrospray ionization source in negative mode (ESI-) and the selected ions monitored were m/z 313 for THC and m/z 343 for THCA. The proposed method which is simple and sufficiently sensitive for the detection of THC and THCA even in a single larva sampling, assisted the investigation of a forensic case.

Sudden deaths from eosinophilic coronary monoarteritis: a subset of spontaneous coronary artery dissection.

Eosinophilic coronary monoarteritis is a rare condition of unexplained etiology involving selectively the left anterior descending coronary artery. This is a peculiar subset of the general pathoanatomic substrate of spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Dissection of the arterial wall ensues, complicated by acute coronary thrombosis and results in sudden death without any identifiable clinical features for a premortem diagnosis. Two recently investigated unrelated sudden deaths of young, otherwise completely healthy individuals, a white male and a white female, in the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office prompted this report and a scrutiny of the related literature.