ABSTRACT

The usual biological specimens submitted for toxicological analyses are blood, bile, urine, and aliquots of tissues. Occasionally nails, hair, and vitreous humor may be considered. Gas chromatography has been the analytical technique applied to the determination of the majority of drugs of concern to the forensic toxicologist. Infection control must be a concern when working with vitreous humor samples, as it is with other biological specimens. Thus, any interpretation of post-mortem change based on differences between specimens drawn at different times must be made cautiously. Although vitreous humor was used for investigations of other analytes earlier, the first publication of analysis of vitreous humor for toxicological purposes involved the analysis for ethanol and appeared in 1966. The concentrations of electrolytes in blood or serum from living patients are expected to be within specified ranges, and any deviation from normal is indicative of disease or other malady within the body.