Problems of Forensic Sciences 2000 Vol. 42 (XLII) 130-136
THE APPLICATION OF OPIATES DETERMINATION IN SALIVA FOR DIAGNOSTIC AND PROGNOSTIC PROPOSES DURING DETOXIFICATION OF ADDICTED PERSONS
Ewa JANOWSKA1, Wojciech PIEKOSZEWSKI1, Janusz PACH2, Lidia WINNIK2
1Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow, Poland
2Department of Clinical Toxicology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
Streszczenie
The abuse of "kompot" - home-made heroin - is very common in Poland. During detoxification and monitoring of abstinence, frequent blood sampling has to be done, which can cause some problems. Saliva can be an alternative body fluid for determination of morphine and other co-existing chemical substances in "kompot". The aim of the study was to compare serum and saliva concentrations of morphine and codeine in patients admitted to the Detoxification Unit, and during their stay at the Toxicology Clinic. The first step was to develop and validate the GC/MS methods of morphine and codeine determination. The study were carried out on 37 patients (29 male and 8 female) admitted to the Toxicology Clinic. In all patients the presence of opiates in urine was preliminary confirmed by enzymoimmunoassay. The concentration of morphine (measured by GC/MS) in serum ranged from 0 to 671 ng/ml (mean 179 ng/ml) and codeine from 0 to 553 ng/ml (mean 59 ng/ml), in saliva 0-142 ng/ml (mean 44 ng/ml) and 0-428 ng/ml (mean 63.4 ng/ml) respectively. In the studied group a correlation between concentration of morphine in serum and saliva was shown (r = 0.4854), but there was no correlation for the concentration of codeine in these body fluids. The results of this study indicate that the measuring of morphine in saliva could be used as a means of monitoring the taking of home-made heroin.
Słowa kluczowe
Alternative materials; Saliva analysis; Morphine; GC/MS.