Problems of Forensic Sciences 2003 Vol. 54 (LIV) 32-59
THE INFLUENCE OF POST-MORTEM CHANGES IN BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL ON INTERPRETATION OF TOXICOLOGICAL ANALYSIS RESULTS
Maria KAŁA, Ewa CHUDZIKIEWICZ
Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow
Streszczenie
Investigation on post-mortem changes in biological material have been carried out in the Institute of Forensic Research for about forty years. The studies covered a broad spectrum of aspects. In particular were investigated:
– physico-chemical characteristics of putrefactive biological material;
– courses and conditions of putrefaction processes influenced the formation of toxic substance, especially ethanol, n-butanol, carboxyhaemoglobin and cyanides;
– decay processes of endogenous substances, important to toxicological examinations, e.g. esterase activity;
– degradation processes of exogenous substances, as follows: decomposition of esters, stability of strychnine, instability of thioridazine and imipramine etc;
– representations of putrefactive biological material relative to the methods being used to toxic substances isolation and detection.
The results obtained by authors from Institute were compared with those described in the literature. These ways of investigation make up the recognition of so called biological background that ought to be the basis for analytical methods selection and toxicological analysis results interpretation applied to the forensic toxicology purposes.
Słowa kluczowe
Post-mortem changes, endogenous and exogenous compounds, formation and degradation of processes.