Colchicine poisoning: report of a fatal case with body fluid and post-mortem tissue analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography.
A case involving a suicide by the ingestion of colchicine tablets is presented. Liquid chromatography has been used to measure the drug level in blood and in post-mortem tissues of the patient (a 42-year-old man). Plasma concentration 24 h after ingestion was 4.5 ng/mL. On autopsy, the kidney showed the highest concentration (396 ng/g). High concentrations were also found in the liver (347 ng/g) and heart (334 ng/g). Low concentrations were detected in the lung (58 ng/g), muscle (10 ng/g) and brain (5 ng/g).
Dehon
B
B
Laboratoire de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire, Hôpital Calmette, Lille, France.
Chagnon
J L
JL
Vinner
E
E
Pommery
J
J
Mathieu
D
D
Lhermitte
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001826:Body Fluids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002138:Calibration; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D003078:Colchicine / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000506:poisoning*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011041:Poisoning / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012015:Reference Standards; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D013405:Suicide; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D003078:Colchicine