Biomedical subjects

W G Krasselt

Publications and source records attributed to W G Krasselt.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1994

An acetonitrile-related death.

A 39-year-old female who lived alone was discovered dead in her home. An autopsy produced no cause of death. The blood sedative screen was negative and only diphenhydramine was found by the urine organic base analysis. Examination of the blood and urine for volatiles produced an unexpected peak by GC analysis, which was then identified as acetonitrile by GC/MS. Acetonitrile concentrations were 31 and 56 mg/dL in two separate blood samples and 44 mg/dL in the urine. The blood cyanide concentration was 4.4 micrograms/mL. The cause of death was determined to be acetonitrile poisoning although the source of the acetonitrile was not discovered.

Acetonitriles↗

PubMed1987

Concentrations of morphine and codeine in serum and urine after ingestion of poppy seeds.

We measured morphine and codeine in commercially available poppy seeds and in serum and urine samples from healthy adults who had ingested these poppy seeds. Four brands of black poppy seeds, examined by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) with deuterated internal standards, contained from 17 to 294 micrograms of morphine and 3 to 14 micrograms of codeine per gram of seeds. Morphine was detected by GC-MS in hydrolysates of serum as late as 24 h after ingestion, with a maximum mean concentration of 100 ng/mL (range 82-131) measured 2 h after the subjects ingested 25 g of seeds. Opiates were detectable (greater than 300 micrograms/L) in urine by enzyme-multiplied immunoassay (EMIT; Syva Co.) and by radioimmunoassay screening procedures for as long as 48 h after ingestion. The identity and quantities of morphine and codeine in poppy seed extracts and in hydrolysates of serum and urine were confirmed by GC-MS. Therefore a positive finding of morphine or codeine in blood and urine may sometimes be due to ingestion of poppy seeds.

Codeine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of the Abbott TDx for determination of phenobarbital in forensic blood specimens.

The Abbott TDx was evaluated for determination of phenobarbital (PB) levels in postmortem (PM) blood. Because hemolysis does not interfere with fluorescence polarization assays, the TDx could be a fast, efficient alternative to gas chromatography (GC). The linearity and precision of the TDx assay were evaluated using postmortem blood that was spiked with phenobarbital and serially diluted. The relationship between nominal and measured values was linear for phenobarbital concentrations up to 150 mg/L (r = 0.999) in two separate postmortem bloods. Precision was excellent with run-to-run coefficients of variation of 10% or less. The TDx results for phenobarbital in spiked PM blood were compared to those determined by GC. An excellent correlation (r = 0.999) between the TDx results and GC results was achieved. PM blood specimens from ten forensic cases were assayed for PB by GC and compared with PB results from the TDx. Comparison of these results also showed good correlation (r = 0.959). These data indicate that the Abbott TDx can be used reliably in the estimation of PB levels in postmortem whole blood samples.

Chromatography, Gas↗