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Elevated formic acid concentrations in putrefied post-mortem blood and urine samples.

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Formic acid (FA) levels in post-mortem samples indicate putrefaction, not methanol poisoning, in regular and decomposed cases. Methanol-positive cases showed significantly higher FA and methanol concentrations, with no correlation between them.

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Area of Science:

  • Forensic Toxicology
  • Analytical Chemistry

Background:

  • Formic acid (FA) is a metabolite of methanol, and its measurement in biological samples is crucial for diagnosing methanol poisoning.
  • Post-mortem FA levels can be influenced by various factors, including putrefaction and sample storage conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify formic acid (FA) concentrations in post-mortem blood and urine samples.
  • To differentiate FA levels resulting from putrefaction versus ante-mortem methanol consumption.
  • To assess the correlation between FA and methanol concentrations in methanol-positive cases.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 113 post-mortem cases, including blood and urine samples.
  • Measurement of FA as methyl formate using headspace in-tube extraction gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry.
  • Categorization of cases into regular, putrefied, and methanol-positive groups.

Main Results:

  • Regular cases showed low FA levels (mean blood 0.04 g/l, urine 0.06 g/l).
  • Putrefied cases exhibited significantly higher FA levels (mean blood 0.24 g/l, urine 0.25 g/l), with some exceeding levels associated with fatal methanol poisoning.
  • Methanol-positive cases had markedly elevated FA and methanol concentrations, with poor correlation between FA and methanol levels in both blood and urine.

Conclusions:

  • Elevated FA in putrefied cases is attributed to post-mortem decomposition, not methanol ingestion.
  • The headspace GC-MS method reliably quantifies FA in post-mortem samples.
  • FA and methanol concentrations do not correlate well in methanol poisoning cases, suggesting complex metabolic pathways or elimination rates.