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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Fatal intoxications are a topic of great relevance in today's society and a massive challenge for pathologists all over the world. In post-mortem investigations it is often challenging to determine if and which drug(s) caused the death due to the post-mortem processes in a body. This study evaluates forensic fatal cases with positive blood levels for the antipsychotic Olanzapine. The aim of this study is to characterize the sample of such forensic autopsy cases and try to correlate the Olanzapine concentrations with the manner of death and cause of death attributed in the reports. We performed a retrospective, observational and descriptive study, analyzing the reports of forensic autopsies performed in the South Branch of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, in Lisbon, Portugal, from 2013 until 2015. A total of 53 forensic autopsy cases characterized by the presence of Olanzapine were analyzed. Blood Olanzapine concentrations ranged from 10ng/ml to 4363ng/ml. The following variables were collected: sex, age, place of death, number of days between death and autopsy, clinical history, signals of putrefaction, cause of death, manner of death and ancillary tests performed, such as toxicological and histological exams. This study raises the need of awareness for the most common limitations that forensic pathologists face in the interpretation of toxicological results and indicate the need to create a reference table for each substance with our casuistic.
Description
Apresentação Oral realizada na Forensic Medicine Conference of the Baltic Medico-Legal Association,
20th - 22nd of September 2017, Tallinn, Estonia
Keywords
Fatal intoxications Olanzapine