{"title":"Influence of blood thiosulfate produced by postmortem changes for the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide poisoning in forensic autopsy.","authors":"Masaaki Suzuka, Shigeki Jin, Akiko Takeuchi, Manabu Murakami, Keiko Takahashi, Kotaro Matoba","doi":"10.2478/abm-2024-0035","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Thiosulfate concentration in blood is an important indicator for the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. It may also be detected at high levels in postmortem decomposition cases.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To determine the effect of postmortem decomposition on blood thiosulfate concentration and define precautions for diagnosing hydrogen sulfide poisoning based on thiosulfate concentration.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A total of 57 cadavers (37 males and 20 females) of non-hydrogen sulfide poisoning-related deaths that underwent forensic autopsy in our department between 2016 and 2019 were classified into the non-decomposed (19 cases), partially decomposed (19 cases), and severely decomposed (19 cases) groups based on forensic findings. Blood samples collected from each case were analyzed for thiosulfate concentration using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mean concentration of thiosulfate detected in the blood was 70.9 (10.5-266.6) μmol/L in the severely decomposed group, 16.3 (0.1-52.7) μmol/L in the partially decomposed group, and 1.1 (0.1-3.6) μmol/L in the non-decomposed group. There was a statistically significant difference between each of the 3 groups (<i>P</i> < 0.01).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Previous studies have reported a blood thiosulfate concentration of >14 μmol/L in hydrogen sulfide poisoning cases and <4 μmol/L in normal cases. Thus, thiosulfate concentration is believed to have a significant impact on the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. This study revealed that postmortem decomposition produced thiosulfate in the blood, and the concentration of thiosulfate was often as high as that observed in cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning-related death. In addition to cases of advanced decomposition, an increase in thiosulfate concentration was also observed in cases of partial decomposition. Therefore, when measuring thiosulfate concentration as an indicator of hydrogen sulfide poisoning, it is necessary to carefully consider the influence of decomposition.</p>","PeriodicalId":8501,"journal":{"name":"Asian Biomedicine","volume":"18 6","pages":"281-286"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11650590/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asian Biomedicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2478/abm-2024-0035","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/12/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"MEDICINE, RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Thiosulfate concentration in blood is an important indicator for the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. It may also be detected at high levels in postmortem decomposition cases.
Objectives: To determine the effect of postmortem decomposition on blood thiosulfate concentration and define precautions for diagnosing hydrogen sulfide poisoning based on thiosulfate concentration.
Methods: A total of 57 cadavers (37 males and 20 females) of non-hydrogen sulfide poisoning-related deaths that underwent forensic autopsy in our department between 2016 and 2019 were classified into the non-decomposed (19 cases), partially decomposed (19 cases), and severely decomposed (19 cases) groups based on forensic findings. Blood samples collected from each case were analyzed for thiosulfate concentration using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.
Results: The mean concentration of thiosulfate detected in the blood was 70.9 (10.5-266.6) μmol/L in the severely decomposed group, 16.3 (0.1-52.7) μmol/L in the partially decomposed group, and 1.1 (0.1-3.6) μmol/L in the non-decomposed group. There was a statistically significant difference between each of the 3 groups (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Previous studies have reported a blood thiosulfate concentration of >14 μmol/L in hydrogen sulfide poisoning cases and <4 μmol/L in normal cases. Thus, thiosulfate concentration is believed to have a significant impact on the diagnosis of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. This study revealed that postmortem decomposition produced thiosulfate in the blood, and the concentration of thiosulfate was often as high as that observed in cases of hydrogen sulfide poisoning-related death. In addition to cases of advanced decomposition, an increase in thiosulfate concentration was also observed in cases of partial decomposition. Therefore, when measuring thiosulfate concentration as an indicator of hydrogen sulfide poisoning, it is necessary to carefully consider the influence of decomposition.
期刊介绍：
Asian Biomedicine: Research, Reviews and News (ISSN 1905-7415 print; 1875-855X online) is published in one volume (of 6 bimonthly issues) a year since 2007. [...]Asian Biomedicine is an international, general medical and biomedical journal that aims to publish original peer-reviewed contributions dealing with various topics in the biomedical and health sciences from basic experimental to clinical aspects. The work and authorship must be strongly affiliated with a country in Asia, or with specific importance and relevance to the Asian region. The Journal will publish reviews, original experimental studies, observational studies, technical and clinical (case) reports, practice guidelines, historical perspectives of Asian biomedicine, clinicopathological conferences, and commentaries
Asian biomedicine is intended for a broad and international audience, primarily those in the health professions including researchers, physician practitioners, basic medical scientists, dentists, educators, administrators, those in the assistive professions, such as nurses, and the many types of allied health professionals in research and health care delivery systems including those in training.
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