E-Book Overview
Extracted from the Drug Abuse Handbook, 2nd 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.
E-Book Content
54511_C000.fm Page i Tuesday, September 4, 2007 10:49 AM Half Title Page Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs 54511_C000.fm Page ii Tuesday, September 4, 2007 10:49 AM 54511_C000.fm Page iii Tuesday, September 4, 2007 10:49 AM Title Page Postmortem Toxicology of Abused Drugs Edited by Steven B. Karch, MD, FFFLM Consultant Pathologist and Toxicologist Berkeley, California Boca Raton London New York CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business 54511_C000.fm Page iv Tuesday, Septemb