Concentrations of Cocaine and Benzoylecgonine in Femoral Blood from Cocaine-Related Deaths Compared with Venous Blood from Impaired Drivers

Abstract

The concentrations of cocaine and its major metabolite benzoylecgonine (BZE) were determined in femoral blood from 132 cocaine-related deaths and compared with venous blood from 988 apprehended drivers. Cocaine and BZE were determined by solid-phase extraction and isotope dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with limits of quantitation of 0.02 mg/L for both substances. Significantly more men (95-98%) than women (2-5%) abused cocaine, although their mean age was about the same (29-30 years). Mean age (±SD) of cocaine-related deaths was 29 ± 7 years, which was not significantly different from 30 ± 8 years in traffic cases (P > 0.05). The median concentration of cocaine in blood in 61 fatalities was 0.10 mg/L compared with 0.06 mg/L in traffic cases (P < 0.001). In drug intoxication deaths, the median concentration of cocaine was 0.13 mg/L (N = 25), which was not significantly different from 0.09 mg/L (N = 36) in other causes of death. Cocaine-related deaths mostly involved mixed drug intoxications including co-ingestion of heroin, cannabis, amphetamines as well as legal drugs, such as benzodiazepines and/or ethanol. The concentrations of cocaine in blood from living and deceased persons overlapped, which makes it infeasible to predict toxicity from the analytical toxicology results alone.

Four cases of death involving the novel synthetic cannabinoid 5F-Cumyl-PEGACLONE

“…Cocaine is a centrally stimulating drug potentially leading to cardiac arrhythmias, an increase in body temperature, cerebral seizures, and respiratory paralysis, that is rapidly degraded in blood (half-life of 0.5-1.5 h [59]) resulting in a reduction of postmortem levels [60]. Thus, toxicity can hardly be estimated from blood concentrations [61]. In the present case, the absence of parent compound and the relatively low concentrations of the ester hydrolysis products indicate that the last cocaine intake was either very low-dosed or occurred with a larger time distance to death.…”

Effects of drugs of abuse on channelrhodopsin-2 function

“…p=0.86) of ChR2 mediated currents. Considering that 40 mM concentrations of cocaine (Jones and Holmgren, 2014) and between 1–120 µM methamphetamine (McIntyre et al, 2013) have been found in post-mortem blood samples from deaths related to overdose, these results suggest ChR2 function is unlikely to be affected by concentrations of cocaine or methamphetamine normally generated during self-administration studies of psychostimulants.…”

Avaliação da presença de cocaína e anfetamina em amostras de sangue <i>post mortem</i> e de indivíduos vivos, utilizando técnica de microextração em fase líquida (HF-LPME)

“…Tabela 2 -Critéiros de ponderação estudados para anfetamina Critério de ponderação intercepto inclinação soma dos residuais (%) wi = 1 -0,11036 0,003309 774,2780939 wi = 1.x -1/2 0,014096 0,003108 42,5441679 wi = 1.x -2 0,016424 0,003012 31,8921676 wi = 1.y -1/2 -0,00287 0,003165 145,4688333 wi = 1.y -1 0,012155 0,003092 55,6659056 wi = 1.y -1 0,016583 0,002971 32,6495343 wi = 1. LOGAN et al, 1997;SHIMURA et al, 2001;GIROUD et al, 2004;HOLMGREN, 2014). Como resultado, o coeficiente de determinação (R 2 ) de 0,99 mostrou-se adequado, segundo os critérios de aprovação dos principais guias utilizados para esse estudo (UNODC, 2009;SWGTOX, 2013).…”

“…Essa predominância no grupo parece coincidir com dois trabalhos publicados na Suécia, os quais, reportam prevalência de homens usuários de cocaína em casos de motoristas flagrados no trânsito por uso de drogas, com valores que chegam a patamares acima de 95%(JONES et al, 2007;HOLMGREN, 2014). Em trabalhos específicos sobre o envolvimento de homens e mulheres como vítimas de acidente de trânsito na cidade de Porto Alegre, Saldanha et al(2014) também identificaram que o número de homens usuários de álcool e outras drogas ultrapassava o de mulheres, sendo que o envolvimento de mulheres em acidente era mais frequente como passageiras ou pedestres.Apesar de o grupo de homens ter se sobressaído quando ao número total de casos positivos, é importante considerar que número de casos positivos dentro de cada grupo.Separadamente, essa porcentagem de casos positivos no grupo de homens foi de 38,6%,…”

“…Essa conclusão parece estar de acordo com dois trabalhos publicados na Suécia, os quais reportam médias de usuários de cocaína apreendidos no trânsito daquele país próximas de 29 anos de idade. Ou seja, de uma população jovem, mas não adolescente (JONES et al, 2007;HOLMGREN, 2014). Casos positivos para cocaína, segundo faixa etária do doador da amostra Obs: Do total de casos positivos, 3 amostras não tinham identificação a respeito da idade do doador.…”