This paper reports a survey of drug screening in the urine specimens of 45 autopsy cases whose livers contained medicinal substances. The extractions were carried out by a solid phase/liquid technique and the analyses by thin-layer chromatography. Nine compounds out of 43 actually present in the liver were not detectable in the urine; eight cases with high drug concentrations in the liver and also in the blood would have evaded the intoxication suspicion had the urine been used as the only material for the chemical survey. On the basis of these data we advocate that the preliminary drug screening of medical-examiner cases not be carried out on urine alone.

Chromatography, Thin Layer↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A procedure for simultaneous screening and quantification of basic drugs in liver, utilizing capillary gas chromatography and nitrogen sensitive detection.

This paper describes a method used for the comprehensive screening of 80 and quantification of 49 basic drugs or drug metabolites in liver specimens taken from medical examiner's cases. A simple, versatile liquid/liquid extraction procedure was employed, and the analysis was carried out by glass capillary gas chromatography with nitrogen specific detection. In this procedure, a 15 m AR-glass capillary leached with HCl, deactivated with cyclic siloxane and coated with SE-52 was utilized. Data on precisions from the quantitative analyses carried out within-day or day-to-day yielded standard deviations on the order of 2-5% and 5-25% of the mean values, respectively, when performed at concentration levels of 10 or 100 micrograms drug per gram wet liver tissue.

Chromatography, Gas↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Determination of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-11-oic acid in urine as its pentafluoropropyl-pentafluoropropionyl derivative by GC/MS utilizing negative ion chemical ionization.

A rapid and sensitive GC/MS method for the determination of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-11-oic acid in urine is presented. Enzymically hydrolyzed urine was extracted with hexane/ethyl ether followed by a one-step derivatization procedure with a mixture of pentafluoropropionic anhydride and pentafluoropropanol. By using negative ion chemical ionization and selected ion monitoring, a 200-fold higher detectability was observed, compared with El or positive ion chemical ionization under the conditions used. Samples were analyzed with split injection on a fused silica capillary column with a total analysis time of less than four minutes. A deuterium labelled analogue was used as internal standard and the precision for the overall method was measured to 3.4% for a sample concentration of 230 ng/mL, and to 6.7% for 3 ng/mL. The minimum detectable amount was below 1 ng/mL.

Chemical Phenomena↗

PubMedDate not supplied

In vitro metabolism of phenylacetone, phenyl-2-butanone, and 3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-butanone by rabbit liver preparations.

Phenylacetone, phenyl-2-butanone, and 3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-butanone were incubated with rabbit liver 9000g supernatant fraction for 30 and 60 min to yield primarily the alcohols, plus small amounts of 1,2-glycols and ketols (2-one-1-ols). Phenylacetone incubations produced small amounts of benzoic acid, which was confirmed as a true metabolite by incubation of 2H5 (phenyl-labeled) phenylacetone and corresponding recovery of phenyl-labeled benzoic acid. No benzoic acid was detectable from incubations of phenyl-2-butanone and 3-methyl-1-phenyl-2-butanone. 3-Methyl-1-phenyl-2-butanone yielded eight metabolites in addition to the corresponding alcohol, and structures are proposed for some of these metabolic products.

Acetone↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The prevalence of antinuclear antibodies in healthy young persons and adults, comparing rat liver tissue sections with HEp-2 cells as antigen substrate.

The prevalence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was studied in 290 healthy adults, aged 20-88 years, and in 219 children, aged 1 month to 15 years. Two antigen substrates, rat liver tissue sections and HEp-2 cells, were compared at different serum dilutions. At titre 1/40, the number of positive adult samples was 6.9% with HEp-2 cells and 6.2% with rat liver. Using a lower serum dilution, HEp-2 cells were shown to be significantly more sensitive than rat liver. However, 25% of the positive samples at serum titre > or = 1/40 could only be found on HEp-2 cells, as compared to 17% for rat liver, even after extended investigation. In children, 7.3% of the samples were positive using HEp-2, as compared to 2.3% with rat liver tissue, at titre 1/10. None of the samples were positive for nDNA or other specific antigens as measured by immunodiffusion. One sample had antibodies against core histones and two samples showed antibodies against subcellular antigens by immunoblot. We conclude that the occurrence of ANA in healthy Swedish children and adults is similar to previous studies from other countries. Both rat liver tissue and HEp-2 cells were found to be suitable for screening purposes, if the increased sensitivity of HEp-2 cells is taken into consideration, particularly with regard to children. Furthermore, it may be necessary to use more than one substrate to exclude ANA positivity in clinical practice.

Adolescent↗