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Determination of opiates in postmortem bone and bone marrow
N Raikos1, H Tsoukali, S N Njau
1Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University, 540 06 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Forensic Science International
|December 1, 2001
Abstract:
Bone and bone marrow of a fatally poisoned heroin addict were analyzed by FPIA and GC-FID, immediately after death. A piece of the bone from the above case was buried for 1 year and analyzed by the same procedure. Morphine was detected in all specimens at concentrations of 195, 340 and 155 ng/g for bone marrow, bone and buried bone, respectively. A loss of 54.4% of morphine concentration was observed during 1-year burial. Such findings have potential forensic value in cases of skeletonized remains.