Toxicología Postmortem: estudio analítico de cocaína en cerebro / Post-mortem Toxicology: Analytical study of cocaine in brain tissue

RESUMEN

El screening de drogas de abuso postmortem en casos de presunta causa de muerte por sobredosis es un análisis habitual en todos los laboratorios toxicológicos. La matriz más utilizada y común para el estudio es la sangre debido a su relación temporal con los efectos en el individuo y su estado en el momento de la muerte. Otras matrices como humor vítreo, saliva y orina son también analizadas de modo alternativo para complementar los estudios post mortem o en casos de difícil extracción de sangre por motivos diversos. La utilización de cerebro como matriz biológica alternativa para el análisis toxicológico, proporciona información relevante del estado del individuo y de sus posibles alteraciones físicas y de conducta en el momento de la muerte (AU)

ABSTRACT

Post mortem drug screening in cases of presumed over dose as cause of death is a routine analysis in toxicology laboratories. The most common tissue sample used for the study is blood due to its time/temporal relation with the effect on the individual and his/her status at the time of death. Other tissues such as vitreous humour, saliva and urine are also analyzed to complement the studies or in cases where blood extraction is difficult for a number of reasons. The use of brain tissue provides excellent information relevant to the status of the individual and possible physical alterations and conduct at time of death. This study has two different objectives. First of all, linking the results obtained by four different techniques of post mortem extraction on 6samples of brain tissue. Moreover, determining the most reliable technique of extraction. In relation with the material and methods used in the analysis of braint issue samples, they have been carried out by using solid-phase extraction (SPE) techniques and later the semi-quantitative determination of cocaine levels by chromatographic techniques GC/MS-MS with deutered cocaine as internal reference. According to the collected results, a confirmation that one of the techniques proves to be advantageous over the rest. The conclusions that can be obtained from the semi-quantitative determination of results carried out by chromatographic techniques GC/MS and response factor method fulfill the objectives of the study. The extraction technique and the described results studied by response factor can be a useful routine analysis of cocaine detection in brain tissue in the forensic area. Confirmation of results, however, may require an increased sample size (AU)