Citation

Sawyer WR, Waterhouse GA, Doedens DJ, Forney RB. J. Forensic Sci. 1988; 33(5): 1146-1155.

Affiliation

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.

Comment In:

J Forensic Sci 1990;35(3):520-3.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2461428

Abstract

A procedure has been developed for the simultaneous determination of heroin, morphine, and hydromorphone from postmortem tissues by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using electrochemical detection. This method permits the direct determination of unmetabolized heroin from antemortem or postmortem urine as evidence of illegal drug use. Presumptive confirmation of heroin was based on the ability to hydrolyze the HPLC heroin fraction to morphine. Heroin was also confirmed in urine by gas chromatographic/mass spectroscopic (GC/MS) analysis of the HPLC fraction. Analysis of postmortem blood, gastric contents, urine, and injection site tissues have revealed the presence of morphine and hydromorphone, while heroin has only been identified in urine.

Language: en