Ethanol Origin in Postmortem Urine: An LC/MS Determination of Serotonin Metabolites

Johnson, R. D.; Lewis, R. L.; Canfield, D. V.; Blank, C. L.; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Civil Aerospace Medical Institute

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Ethanol Origin in Postmortem Urine: An LC/MS Determination of Serotonin Metabolites

2003-11-01
By Johnson, R. D. ; Lewis, R. L. ; Canfield, D. V. ; ...

[PDF-292.48 KB]

English

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Creators:

Johnson, R. D. ; Lewis, R. L. ; Canfield, D. V. ; Blank, C. L.

Johnson, R. D. ; Lewis, R. L. ; Canfield, D. V. ; Blank, C. L. Less -
Corporate Creators:

United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Corporate Contributors:

United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Office of Aerospace Medicine ; University of Oklahoma. Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry

United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Office of Aerospace Medicine ; University of Oklahoma. Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry Less -
Subject/TRT Terms:

[+]

5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic Acid 5-hydroxytryptophol Acetic Acid Air Transportation Air Transportation Crashes Crash Investigation Ethanol LC/MS Postmortem Ethanol Serotonin
Publication/ Report Number:

DOT/FAA/AM-03/18
Resource Type:

Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:

United States
Corporate Publisher:

United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Abstract:

Specimens from fatal aviation accident victims are submitted to the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute for toxicological analysis. During toxicological evaluations, ethanol analysis is performed on all cases. Care must be taken when interpreting a positive ethanol result due to the potential for postmortem ethanol formation. Several indicators of postmortem ethanol formation exist; however, none are completely reliable. The consumption of ethanol has been shown to alter the concentration of two major serotonin metabolites, 5-hydroxytryptophol (5-HTOL) and 5 hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA). While the 5-HTOL/5-HIAA ratio is normally very low, previous studies using live subjects have demonstrated that the urinary 5 HTOL/5-HIAA ratio is significantly elevated for 11-19 hours after acute ethanol ingestion. We investigated the 5 HTOL/5-HIAA ratio as a potential indicator of ethanol origin in postmortem urine samples. We developed and validated a method for the simultaneous determination of 5-HTOL and 5-HIAA in forensic urine samples using a simple liquid/liquid extraction and LC/MS/MS and LC/MS/MS/MS. A typical recovery of approximately 80% was achieved for both compounds. The LC/MS method proved highly selective and sensitive, having an LOD of 0.1 ng/mL for both compounds. The accuracy and precision was also very good. Utilizing our LC/MS method, we examined the 5 HTOL/5-HIAA ratio in 21 ethanol-negative and 23 true ethanol-positive postmortem urine specimens. We found that all ethanol-negative specimens had 5 HTOL/5-HIAA ratios below 15 pmol/nmol, a previously established antemortem urine cutoff for recent ethanol ingestion. All ethanol-positive urine samples had 5 HTOL/5-HIAA ratios above 15 pmol/nmol. These results validated the antemortem cutoff for use with postmortem urine specimens. This method was then applied to cases where postmortem ethanol formation was suspected.
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PDF
Collection(s):

FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Main Document Checksum:

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urn:sha256:70c30c49e0c17b87801c88f1a9dbc746729d66ed5d4ce97c97aa6ab3bb19eb25
Download URL:

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/58111/dot_58111_DS1.pdf
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Ethanol Origin in Postmortem Urine: An LC/MS Determination of Serotonin Metabolites

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