ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Page Count: 3

The Detection of Opiate Drugs in Nontraditional Specimens (Clothing): A Report of Ten Cases
Tracqui, A
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg,

Ludes, B
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg,

Jamey, C
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg,

Kintz, P
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg,

Mangin, P
Institut de Médecine Légale, Facule de Médecine de Strasbourg,

(Received 4 March 1994; accepted 19 July 1994)

Abstract

We present a series of 10 fatalities involving opiate overdosage, in which morphine, codeine, and 6-monoacetylmorphine were identified and quantified, not only in postmortem biological samples, but also in pieces of underwear taken from the bodies. Small tissue samples (about 1 g) were cut off from several parts of the underwear, stored at ambient temperature until analysis, then extracted by agitation in a mixture of chloroform/2-propanol/n-heptane (60:14:26, v/v/v) and assayed using GC/MS in the single ion monitoring mode. Morphine, codeine and 6-monoacetylmorphine concentrations were in the range 0.02 to 9.27 µg/g. These results indicate that the impregnation of underwear by sweat and sebaceous secretions and/or urine provides detectable levels of the drugs excreted by these ways. Even in the absence of biological samples, assaying pieces of clothing may bring some evidence about the drug abuser status of their owner.

Keywords:
toxicology, underwear, clothes, opiates, GC/MS, chromatographic analysis

Paper ID: JFS15354J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS15354J
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