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Nails in Forensic Toxicology: An Update.

Renata Solimini1, Adele Minutillo1, Chrystalla Kyriakou2

  • 1National Centre on Drug Addiction and Doping, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy.

Current Pharmaceutical Design
|July 6, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Nail analysis offers a stable method for detecting long-term drug use and exposure. Further research is needed to standardize methods for accurate forensic and clinical toxicology results.

Keywords:
Nail analysisclinical toxicologydrug detectiondrug incorporationforensic toxicologykeratinized matrix

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Area of Science:

  • Forensic Toxicology
  • Analytical Chemistry

Background:

  • Nails serve as a keratinized matrix for detecting drugs and illicit substances.
  • This method is valuable in forensic and clinical toxicology for long-term retrospective analysis.
  • Nail analysis aids in investigating chronic drug abuse, monitoring pharmaceutical use, and detecting in utero or environmental exposures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review recent literature on drug incorporation mechanisms into nails.
  • To summarize methods for drug detection in nails for forensic toxicology.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of recent studies.
  • Investigation of drug incorporation mechanisms.
  • Analysis of drug detection methodologies in nail samples.

Main Results:

  • Drug incorporation mechanisms are not fully understood but may involve sweat contamination, nail bed, or germinal matrix incorporation.
  • Various methods for detecting drugs of abuse, medications, and alcohol biomarkers in nails have been reported.
  • These methods show potential applications in clinical and forensic toxicology.

Conclusions:

  • Standardization and harmonization of nail analysis methodologies are crucial.
  • Optimization of sampling, development of proficiency testing, and determination of cut-off values are essential for reliable results.