Historically, early identification and characterization of adverse effects of industrial chemicals was difficult because conventional toxicological test methods did not meet R&D needs for rapid, relatively inexpensive methods amenable to small amounts of test material. The pharmaceutical industry now front-loads toxicity testing, using in silico, in vitro, and less demanding animal tests at ear...

A new and simple procedure for the determination of parathion in human whole blood and urine using direct immersion (DI) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is presented. This technique was developed using only 100 microL of sample, and ethion was used as internal standard (IS). A 65-microm Carbowax/divinylbenzene (CW/DVB) SPME fibre was selected ...

Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a new analytical strategy for monitoring licit and illicit drug use in population by measuring the levels of biomarkers wastewater. The main concept this approach is that chemical substances ingested will be excreted urine feces, which discarded into sewage network may accumulate at wastewater treatment plant. Several such ethanol, nicotine, cocaine,...

OBJECTIVE To determine the pattern of homicidal deaths caused by rifled weapons in Peshawar as regards the parameters of age, gender, place of occurrence and the number and location of injuries on the body. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The study was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Khyber Medical College, Peshawar, from June 200...

Hair analysis is a powerful tool for the detection of chronic or past drug ingestion and in recent years it has also been exploited for chronic alcohol abuse. Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) determination in hair has been increasingly employed for diagnosing chronic excessive drinking in both clinical and forensic areas. This work describes a simple fully validated method for the determination of EtG i...

A 30-year old man was found dead in his home after inhaling fumes of a powder burned on aluminum foil. Blood and urine were taken by the medical examiner during the external body examination and submitted to the laboratory for a comprehensive systematic toxicological analysis. A toxic fentanyl level of 10.9μg/L was measured in the subclavian blood. Police investigation revealed that the man sea...

introduction: natural and unexpected death that happens within less than one hour of first symptom occurrence is called sudden death. cardiovascular diseases are the main known reason of sudden death and more than 75% of sudden deaths in athletes are assigned to it. here we reported the autopsy results of all cases with sudden death following exercise that were referred to forensic center of te...

In the past decade there has been a significant increase in the popularity of synthetic cathinones in the illegal drug market. They have been easily available from Internet-based vendors as well as at "head shops" and "smart shops". The recent prominence of synthetic cathinones can be attributed to their stimulatory properties similar to those of amphetamines. This paper provides a review on th...

Most drugs that affect the central nervous system have the potential to impair driving ability. For many years, alcohol (ethanol) has been the drug of greatest concern, since it is, by far, the most frequently recognized cause of drug-impaired driving. Yet as more therapeutic agents, such as benzodiazepines, are introduced and widely used, and as social use of unsanctioned drugs such as cannabi...

AIMS With an estimated 12 million consumers in Europe, cocaine (COC) is the illicit drug leading to the most emergency department visits. The aim of this study was to examine a consecutive series of sudden deaths (SDs) to focus on the prevalence, the toxicological characteristics, and the causes of death in COC-related fatalities. METHODS AND RESULTS Prospective case-control study of forensic...