title: Validation of qualitative test for phosphine gas in human tissues.
abstract: Phosphine has been known to science since the birth of modern chemistry. WHO reports that the technical product usually has a foul odour, like "fishy" or "garlicky" because of the presence of substituted phosphines and diphosphine (P2H4). Many medico-legal autopsy cases have been reported positive for aluminium phosphide even though there was neither any suspicion of consuming aluminium phosphide nor any clinical findings, postmortem findings or circumstantial evidences. The present study was carried out to validate the qualitative test, presently applied in many laboratories for testing phosphine. It was observed that 65% of human tissues in saturated solution of common salt show positivity for phosphine gas on the first day of autopsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine &Toxicology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India.
authors.forename: Anupuma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raina
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mathur
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Dogra
mesh_terms: D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000592:standards; D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D010720:Phosphines / Q000032:analysis*; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D013048:Specimen Handling
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D010720:Phosphines; C044646:phosphine