Deaths related to nitrogen inhalation: Analytical challenges

Area of Science:

• Forensic Toxicology
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Dinitrogen (N2) is increasingly implicated in suicidal deaths.
• Quantifying N2 in post-mortem samples is challenging, often relying on circumstantial evidence.
• Validated analytical methods are needed for accurate toxicological assessment.

Observation:

• This study reviews N2 intoxication cases and applies two quantitative approaches to post-mortem whole blood.
• Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze N2 levels in a suicide case and controls.
• N2 analysis involved calibration curves, quality control, and assessment of method performance.

Findings:

• The suicidal case showed significantly higher N2 percentages compared to post-mortem controls (p<0.05).
• The N2/O2 ratio was also significantly elevated in the suicide case (p<0.05).
• The study details the strengths and limitations of the developed N2 quantification methods.

Implications:

• The presented GC-MS methods offer rapid and cost-effective toxicological confirmation for N2 intoxication.
• These validated methods can improve the accuracy of determining cause of death in suspected N2-related fatalities.
• The findings address a critical gap in forensic toxicology for analyzing N2 in biological samples.