Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs

by Steven B. Karch, MD, FFFLM (Editor)

Overview

Extracted from the Drug Abuse Handbook, 2^nd edition, to give you just the information you need at an affordable price.

Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs considers the role of toxicology in the investigation of homicide, suicide, accident, natural death, and overdose. It gives practical insights and case reviews on conducting toxicology tests and completing toxicology reports. It explains chain of custody; specimen collection and security; sampling of blood, urine, bile, and vitreous humor; and the selection of post-mortem specimens. Analyzing various testing procedures, the book covers simple chemical tests, microdiffusion tests, chromatography, spectroscopy, and more. It also discusses methods and strategies for analysis; and covers quality assurance protocols and controls. To help avoid common pitfalls, the text demonstrates the proper interpretation of postmortem drug levels based on knowledge of pharmacokinetics, metabolism, and pharmacogenetics; post-mortem redistribution and diffusion; and other considerations such as synergistic toxicity, and drug instability. Heavily referenced and containing several tables, figures, and useful appendices, this book is a handy reference for forensic scientists and medical examiners involved with death investigation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420054514
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/09/2007
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction to Post-Mortem Toxicology, Specimen Selection, Collection, Preservation, and Security, Common Methods in Post-Mortem Toxicology, Strategies for Post-Mortem Toxicology Investigation, Quality Assurance in Post-Mortem Toxicology, Interpretation of Post-Mortem Drug Levels, Appendices,  Index