FRSC 1011H Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Adme
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Forensic Toxicology
What is Forensic Toxicology
● Detect and identify drugs and toxins in body fluids, tissues and organs
● Interpret the potential biological consequences of the detected drugs or toxins
How are Drugs and Toxins Handled by the Body
● The description of how drugs are handled by the body is often described as
occurring in four phases
○ Absorption
○ Distribution
○ Metabolism
○ Excretion
● “ADME”
Detecting and Measuring Drugs
● Sampling living individuals
○ Blood
○ Urine
○ Breath (ethanol)
○ Hair (cocaine)
● Sampling deceased individuals
○ Blood
○ Urine
○ Breath (ethanol)
○ Hair (cocaine)
○ Tissue samples
Recap
● Detect and identify drugs and toxins in biological samples
● Interpret the results in the context of forensic applications
○ Can be complex and challenging
● Ethanol cases form a large percentage of caseload for forensic toxicologists
● The ADME characteristics of ethanol are well understood
○ Makes interpretation of results more straightforward than other drugs
● “It is the dose that makes the poison”
Document Summary
Detect and identify drugs and toxins in body fluids, tissues and organs. Interpret the potential biological consequences of the detected drugs or toxins. How are drugs and toxins handled by the body. The description of how drugs are handled by the body is often described as occurring in four phases. Detect and identify drugs and toxins in biological samples. Interpret the results in the context of forensic applications. Ethanol cases form a large percentage of caseload for forensic toxicologists. The adme characteristics of ethanol are well understood. Makes interpretation of results more straightforward than other drugs.
