Determination of drug distribution in postmortem tissues and bones of pigs administered drugs

Forensic toxicological analysis is one of most important tools in elucidating manner and cause of death. Traditionally, body fluids such as blood and urine are investigated in cases of intoxication and poisoning-related deaths. However, their samples are often no longer available for toxicological analysis in skeletonized and decomposed corpse due to autolysis/putrification after the burial time and a certain period from death time. In such cases, bones and visceral tissues that preserve structural integrity might be useful as alternative samples for toxicological analysis of toxic and drug poisoning cases. In this study, by administering drug groups selected from various drug classes to domestic pigs, we aimed to make quantification of drugs in putrefied-decomposed visceral tissues and in buried bones and determine the effect of burial on levels and distribution of drugs in tissues and skeletal tissues. Drug groups at toxic dose level to each pig including negative control (n=4+1) were administrated respectively from pills (capsules and tablets) by gastrointestinal and from solutions by intravenous administration. Peripheral blood, organ and bone samples was collected from pigs sacrificed by administering propofol at overdose drug level to pigs after 4 hour in order to allow for distribution and absorption of drugs. After organ samples were collected at postmortem 24th, 48th, 72nd and 96th hours, bone samples from corpses buried below soil ground at 5th and 10th months of the burial time by making exhumation. All samples were analyzed using LC-MS/MS after making sample preparation using appropriate methods. These data indicate that drug levels in organ and bone samples collected from decomposed and burial corpses at different time intervals vary because of unknown mechanisms exposed of the corpse below ground and completely yet unexplained such as postmortem redistribution and these samples collected under conditions in which blood is not appropriate for forensic toxicological analysis is not uniformly useful for predicting blood concentration of drugs.