Speciation of Organotin Compounds, Total Tin, and Major Trace Metal Elements in Poisoned Human Organs by Gas Chromatography-Flame Photometric Detector and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The organ samples from a victim who died of organotin contaminated lard were studied by the technique which involved gas chromatography-flame photometric detector (GC-FPD) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Organotin compounds were determined by the following steps: (1) digestion with 1 M CuSO4 and KBr−H2SO4 solutions; (2) extraction with 0.1% tropolone−cyclohexane; (3) derivatization with a n-pentyl Grignard reagent; (4) purification with florisil; and (5) analysis by GC-FPD. Experimental results showed that the victim's organs including the heart, the kidney, the liver, and the stomach contained extremely high levels of methyltin compounds and some amounts of inorganic tin, while the blank organs only contained nearly equal amounts of inorganic tin. The contents of all organotin compounds with methyltri(n-propyl)tin (MeSnPr3) acting as an internal standard were detected by GC-FPD and found between the levels of 0.10 and 1.93 μg/g (wet weight). The amounts of total tin ranged from 0.84 to 5.02 μg/g, and several major trace metal elements were measured by ICP-MS. To our knowledge, this is the first case of methyltin species found in human organs.