Concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine in femoral blood from cocaine-related deaths compared with venous blood from impaired drivers

摘要

The concentrations of cocaine and its major metabolite benzoylecgonine (BZE) were determined in femoral blood from 132 cocainerelated deaths and compared with venous blood from 988 apprehended drivers. Cocaine and BZE were determined by solidphase 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 5 25), which was not significantly different from 0.09 mg/L (N 5 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.