Determination of time passed since death by the assessment of renal histopathological degenerative changes in adult albino rats

The estimation of the time of death is a medico-legal problem only partially solved. It is an important factor for the investigation of death by defining the period during which death may have occurred. This work was designed to establish the feasibility of the concept of relating degenerative changes of the kidney to postmortem interval. Histopathological changes in the kidney tissue of rats were examined at various postmortem intervals [0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 hours] and fixed temperature [25 °C]. Various histopathological changes were graded according to the degree and extent of autolytic changes from grade-0 to grade-6 [G-0 to G-6]. Samples were stained also with Periodic Acid-Schiff [PAS] after the standard procedure of tissue processing. Afterward, the following structures were analyzed: glomerular basal membrane, parietal layer of Bowman's capsule, tubular basal membrane and apical parts of tubular cells. Results revealed a certain autolytical order depending on the time of death. This work lends support to suggestions that renal histopathological degenerative changes can potentially aid in the estimation of postmortem interval [PMI]

Detection of some pain managing drugs in bone, bone marrow and hair [human and experimental study]

Detection of morphine, fentanyl, and tramadol in human hair and in hair, bone and bone marrow of rats was done using high pressure liquid chromatography [HPKC]. Forty participants were divided into 4 groups control, morphine, tramadol, and fentanyl group. Hair samples were taken after 7 days of exposure to the tested drugs. The animal pat of the experiment consisted of 80 rats. The first 40 rats were divided into 4 subgroups [10 rats each]. The first subgroup was injected with saline IP as a control group, the second subgroup was injected with morphine 20mg/kg SC. The 3[rd] subgroup was injected with fentanyl 60micro g/kg IP and the 4[th] one was injected with tramadol 20mg/kg IP. Hair specimens were collected ten days after injection. The other forty rats were divided into 4 subgroups treated with the same drug doses of the first 40 rats, but morphine and tramadol groups were scarificed after 1 hour and fentanyl group was scarificed after 20 minutes. Femora diaphysis and bone marrow were collected from each sacrificed rat and frozen. After extraction; HPLC was used to evaluate if these drugs could be detected in these tissues after exposure to single therapeutic doses or not. Results showed that all control groups gave negative results. Morphine, fentanyl and tramadol were detected in human hair at levels 20-123pg/mg, 0.6-1.3 and 1.23-4.23 ng/mg respectively. In rats; morphine was detected at level 0.03-0.53, 4.39-12.31 and 9.31-31.20 ng/mg in hair, bone and bone marrow of rats respectively. Fentanyl was detected at level 1.9-6.20, 5.35-22.36 and 18.22-53.49 ng/mg while tramadol was detected at level 1.27-3.92, 9.6-21.6, and 22.62 to 51.31 ng/mg in hair, bone and bone marrow respectively. This study confirmed that morphine, fentanyl and tramadol are detectable even after single use in hair, bone and bone marrow