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Postmortem redistribution of morphine in rats.

G Koren¹, J Klein

¹Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

|December 1, 1992

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Postmortem (PM) morphine levels in blood can increase significantly after death due to redistribution. These elevated concentrations may not reflect antemortem morphine levels, complicating death investigations.

Area of Science:

Forensic Toxicology
Pharmacology
Postmortem Medicine

Background:

Morphine is frequently detected in postmortem blood samples.
Determining if morphine levels indicate cause of death is crucial.
Postmortem redistribution of morphine has not been previously investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the phenomenon of postmortem morphine redistribution.
To determine if postmortem morphine concentrations differ from antemortem levels.
To assess the impact of postmortem redistribution on interpreting morphine levels in forensic cases.

Main Methods:

Adult Wistar rats were administered morphine (4 mg/kg, intramuscular).
Cardiac blood samples were collected at the time of death (2 hours postdose).

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Morphine concentrations were measured at 24 and 96 hours postmortem.

Main Results:

Morphine concentrations in cardiac blood significantly increased from 41.4 ng/ml at death to 111.9 ng/ml at 24 hours postmortem (p = 0.00036).
No significant additional increase was observed at 96 hours postmortem (98.7 ng/ml).
Endogenous substances cross-reacting with the morphine assay were found, contributing minimally (3%) to the total accumulation.

Conclusions:

Substantial redistribution of morphine occurs after death.
Elevated postmortem morphine levels do not necessarily represent antemortem concentrations.
Interpretation of postmortem morphine findings requires consideration of redistribution effects.