title: Medico-legal aspect of amphetamine-related deaths.
abstract: The subject of the work included 41 cases of death in which amphetamine was involved as the direct or indirect cause. Identification and determination of xenobiotics in blood samples collected from post-mortem cases were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionisation (HPLC-ESI-MS-MS). Only for two cases was the cause of death amphetamine poisoning. In most of the investigated cases the death was caused by poisoning due to complex amphetamine and other psychoactive substances (e.g. opiates, benzodiazepines, cocaine). In other cases, multi-organ damage (fall from a height, traffic accident), a puncture wound and wound incised, drowning, or asphyxiation by hanging were reported. It can be explained as risky, murderous, or suicidal actions of people who were under the influence of amphetamines. The presented paper focuses on the interpretation of amphetamine concentration in blood samples from the perspective of direct or indirect cause of death.
authors.affiliation: Karol Kula, Chair and Department of Forensic Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Grzegórzecka 16, 31-531 Krakow, Poland, e-mail: karol.kula@uj.edu.pl.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kula
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rojek
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maciów-Głąb
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kopacz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kłys
mesh_terms: D000661:Amphetamine / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D001237:Asphyxia; D001344:Autopsy; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning*; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D000661:Amphetamine