Forensics face a complicated problem when evaluating intoxications induced by opioids and non – intoxications of opioid abusers since the in vitro concentrations of the said opioid overlap. Researchers found that acylcarnitines role as biomarkers for a diversity of diseases may also be used as biomarkers postmortem, easing the complications that occurs of evaluating the cause of death. A reversed phase ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method in combination with mass spectrometer detection was developed for a quantitative analysis of different acylcarnitines in authentic blood samples. The hypothesis investigated was the altercation of acylcarnitine concentration depending on the cause of death, specifically when induced by opioids. Separation was achieved using ACQUITY UPLC HSS T3 1.8 µm (2.1 x 100 mm) Waters column along with a gradient elution consisting of Mobile phase A: 0.05% HFo in 10 mM Ammoniumformate and Mobile phase B: 0.05% HFo in Methanol. Flowrate was 0.4 mL/min. The method was validated in respect to linearity and range, accuracy, precision, LOD and LOQ as well as stability and degradation of acylcarnitines. Linearity was acceptable with R2 – values for all the substances. Results from the authentic sample analysis showed no statistically significant difference between the investigated groups based on Kruskal – Wallis non-parametric tests and median comparison, however a trend in the data was found correlating to the investigated hypothesis suggesting it may be true.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-99848 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Peterson, Jenny |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för kemi och biomedicinsk vetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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