[Determination of methanol concentration by GC-MS in a fatal case poisoning]

Due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages with methanol content above the admitted limit, a woman from Bacău died at the Bacău County Hospital after 9 hours of hospitalization.

For the toxicological examination blood, liver, bile, stomach, intestine and kidney samples were analyzed in order to establish the concentration of methanol. Determination of methanol was carried out by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), analyzing the distillates obtained from blood and organs. We used an Agilent Technologies 7890 A gas chromatograph coupled to an Agilent Technologies 7683 C spectrometer. Helium was employed as mobile phase and a Phenomenex Zebron ZW-Plus polar column represented the stationary phase. Spectra acquisition mode: SIM, mass range followed: 15-500 atomic mass units, interpretation of the obtained results: Agilent Technologies ChemStation software.

After peak integration on the chromatograms, the following values of methanol concentration were obtained: 1.720 g per thousand in blood, 0.795 g per thousand in liver, 2.661 g per thousand in bile, 2.287 g per thousand in stomach, 1.639 g per thousand in intestine and 1.590 g per thousand in kidney; the results have proved a large quantity of ingested methanol. They have also highlighted the absorption and distribution pattern of the methanol within the body.