TY - JOUR
T1 - Concentrations of toluene in the body killed by an injury to the head shortly after ingesting thinner
AU - Yajima, Yukihito
AU - Funayama, Masato
AU - Niitsu, Hisae
AU - Nata, Masayuki
AU - Kanawaku, Yoshimasa
AU - Sakai, Jun
AU - Aoki, Yasuhiro
PY - 2005/1/6
Y1 - 2005/1/6
N2 - An autopsy was conducted on a male showing leather-like skin damage, revealing the cause of death to be an injury to the head. Thinner was found scattered around the scene of death, and stomach and intestine contents smelled strongly of solvent. Toxicological analysis was conducted to determine whether or not the solvent was of a lethal level. Using gas chromatography, peaks of toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene were detected in the blood and gastric contents. No toluene was detected in the urine, and therefore it was concluded that the decedent died of a severe head injury shortly after solvent ingestion. In the literature, toluene concentrations in blood and lung samples were determined as both fatal and non-fatal but clear differences in the fatality of toluene in solid organ samples, namely, the brain, liver and kidneys were shown. The brain is especially useful in postmortem analysis. In this case, the concentration of toluene in the brain was 20.0 μl/g, which was considered as a non-lethal level.
AB - An autopsy was conducted on a male showing leather-like skin damage, revealing the cause of death to be an injury to the head. Thinner was found scattered around the scene of death, and stomach and intestine contents smelled strongly of solvent. Toxicological analysis was conducted to determine whether or not the solvent was of a lethal level. Using gas chromatography, peaks of toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene were detected in the blood and gastric contents. No toluene was detected in the urine, and therefore it was concluded that the decedent died of a severe head injury shortly after solvent ingestion. In the literature, toluene concentrations in blood and lung samples were determined as both fatal and non-fatal but clear differences in the fatality of toluene in solid organ samples, namely, the brain, liver and kidneys were shown. The brain is especially useful in postmortem analysis. In this case, the concentration of toluene in the brain was 20.0 μl/g, which was considered as a non-lethal level.
KW - Autopsy
KW - Solvent
KW - Toluene ingestion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=8444229018&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=8444229018&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.03.036
DO - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2004.03.036
M3 - Article
C2 - 15541585
AN - SCOPUS:8444229018
VL - 147
SP - 9
EP - 12
JO - Forensic Science International
JF - Forensic Science International
SN - 0379-0738
IS - 1
ER -