Morphine determination by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy in human vitreous humor and comparison with radioimmunoassay.

A gas chromatographic-mass spectroscopic method (GC/MS) for morphine determination in human vitreous humor was developed. Reversed-phase solid-liquid extraction gave better sample purification compared with liquid-liquid or normal-phase solid-liquid extractions. In 10 real cases of death by heroin overdose, the correlation between the results obtained by GC/MS and by radioimmunoassay (RIA) was studied.

[Plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and urine steroid excretion in hepatic cirrhosis]. / Il deidroepiandrosterone solfato plasmatico e la escrezione steroidea urinaria nella cirrosi epatica.

In the present study we evaluated the alterations of plasma levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) and of steroid-derivatives urinary excretion in cirrhotic patients compared with normal controls. 107 patients have been studied: 45 affected by liver cirrhosis (22 males and 23 females) both in compensated and in ascitic state, and 62 healthy controls (32 males and 30 females). In all patients we assayed plasma DHEA-S by RIA as well as common liver function tests; moreover gaschromatographic profile of adrenal steroid excretion was performed in daily urine. Our findings show a significantly lower DHEA-S in cirrhotic patients compared with healthy controls, both males (451.7 SD 440.3 ng/ml vs 1438.3 SD 604.8, p less than 0.001) and females (225.5 SD 152.6 ng/ml vs 974.0 SD 405.7, p less than 0.001). Variance analysis confirmed that the difference was significant both for compensated and uncompensated ones. We also found some interesting relationships between DHEA-S and liver function tests, cholesterol and age. Urinary steroids were markedly low in both sexes, particularly adrenal sexual fraction. Our data show clear disfunction in DHEA-S metabolism in liver cirrhosis, partially related with the severity of the disease.