Emerging Trends in Pharmacotoxicological and Forensic Sample Treatment Procedures

Abstract

One of the most discussed topics concerns the sample preparation before the analysis and, therefore, all the operations necessary to eliminate the interferents, clean up the specimens, and extract the analytes of interest, reducing the matrix effect. This review highlights the fundamental steps in the treatment of postmortem samples used in forensic analysis. Through critical literature research, it was possible to choose among the countless works that could provide a general overview of the state-of-the-art in this field. Different biological matrices have been considered; blood and urine (the traditional biological fluids) are used to investigate the presence of substances that may have caused death, whilst other body fluids, such as bile and oral fluids, are still under discussion for their usability (and suitability). In the second part of the review, all the solid matrices obtained after autopsy were further divided into conventional and unconventional matrices to facilitate proper understanding. The choice of literature was also made according to the most widely used pretreatment techniques and the most representative innovative techniques.