Abstract
Blood is not always available in forensic autopsies, therefore, the search for alternative sampling materials is needed. This study aimed at examining if ethanol can be detected in costal cartilage and to investigate if different forms of costal cartilage can give accurate information about ethanol concentration in the blood or urine of human cadavers (n = 50). Ethanol concentration in samples of unground costal cartilage (UCC), ground costal cartilage (GCC), femoral venous blood, and urine was analyzed using a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Due to Polish law, we used two different cut-off points: the blood alcohol concentration >0.2 mg/mL defined as the ‘after use’ condition, and the blood alcohol concentration >0.5 mg/mL defined as the ‘state of insobriety’. Based on the constructed receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves, the optimal cut-off point for ethanol content as the ‘after use’ condition was 0.273 mg/g for the UCC method and 0.069 mg/g for the GCC method. Analysis of the Areas under a ROC Curve (AUC) showed that both methods present excellent diagnostic accuracy (AUCUCC = 0.903; AUCGCC = 0.984). We demonstrated that it is possible to detect ethanol in the costal cartilage and showed that ethanol concentrations are determined in GCC samples with greater accuracy.
Highlights
Ethanol level analysis is the most frequently performed toxicological assay in forensic laboratories.Several papers describe the post mortem ethanol distribution in different biological fluids and tissues, e.g., vitreous humor [1,2,3,4], kidney [5], liver [6], muscle [7], brain [8], and hematoma [9,10,11].blood and other soft tissues are lost due to post mortem degradation
We compared the results for ethanol concentration in blood and urine with the results of ethanol concentration measured for the costal cartilage prepared using our methods
We found that a long time from death is related to low ethanol concentration in ground costal cartilage (GCC) samples
Summary
Several papers describe the post mortem ethanol distribution in different biological fluids and tissues, e.g., vitreous humor [1,2,3,4], kidney [5], liver [6], muscle [7], brain [8], and hematoma [9,10,11]. Blood and other soft tissues are lost due to post mortem degradation. Ethanol is a volatile organic compound and we may observe differences in its post mortem redistribution depending on the sampling site [12]. Ethanol distributes with body water as a hydrophilic. Processes 2020, 8, 1637 compound, which has been demonstrated to be substantially site-dependent [13]. The search for alternative post mortem sampling materials is both extremely important and complex
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
