Browse the latest forensic toxicology articles or search the collection.
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Does a Negative Autopsy Drug Screen Exclude Medication Exposure? A 2,996-Case Study
A retrospective autopsy series found drugs by GC–MS in cases with negative preliminary immunoassays. Selected LC–MS/MS reanalysis also identified substances missed by the original GC–MS workflow.
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Can Methamphetamine-Related Epigenetic Findings Serve as an Individual Forensic Test?
A historical review links methamphetamine exposure with chromatin and RNA changes. Tissue, assay, clinical subgroup and validation remain essential before a group association can become an individual test.
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Did a Falling Cardiovascular Share Mean Fewer Methamphetamine-Related Deaths in Los Angeles?
In 6,125 medical-examiner records, opioid co-involvement rose while the cardiovascular share fell. Changing denominators, a partial final year and autopsy practices limit what those trends establish.
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Does Lower Dopamine Transporter Binding After Methamphetamine Use Prove Neuron Loss?
A small 1998 human PET study found lower striatal transporter binding after reported abstinence. Its results must be separated from neuron counts, Parkinson disease diagnoses and predictions of future illness.
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Does Lower Acute Methamphetamine Toxicity in Young Rodents Mean Lower Long-Term Risk?
A historical animal-model review separates immediate toxicity markers from later cognitive and motivational outcomes—and explains why an adult-exposure comparison is essential to claims about adolescent vulnerability.
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Can 37 Rodent Withdrawal Studies Rank Methamphetamine Against Amphetamine?
A 2026 systematic review found varied cognitive outcomes after stimulant withdrawal. Unequal regimens, mixed task results and reporting limitations prevent a simple drug ranking or human recovery timetable.
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Near-Cutoff Postmortem GHB Results: Why Decimal Places Do Not Establish Certainty
A GHB concentration just above an interpretive threshold needs validated matrix performance and measurement uncertainty. A methodological letter explains why extra decimal places cannot settle the exposure question.
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Can a Living-Person GHB Blood Cutoff Be Applied to an Autopsy Specimen?
A 24-volunteer study proposed 1.0 µg/mL only for carefully handled blood collected during life. Its conditions do not validate that threshold for postmortem blood.
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Does a Nonsignificant Two-Year GHB Storage Result Mean Every Specimen Was Unchanged?
Repeat testing of blood from ten autopsies showed no significant average GHB change after two years at −20°C. One cardiac specimen nevertheless more than doubled, limiting individual-case assurances.
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Can Cerebrospinal Fluid Help Interpret Postmortem GHB When Urine Is Unavailable?
A five-matrix autopsy study found generally lower GHB in cerebrospinal fluid than in blood. Its proposed cutoff depended on handling conditions and was not validated as a stand-alone exposure test.
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Urine GHB Above 30 mg/L With Low Femoral Blood: What Does the Discordance Mean?
Two published cases had urine GHB of 35 and 72 mg/L but femoral blood below 10 mg/L. The discordance requires a matrix-specific interpretation and does not establish fatal GHB intoxication.
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Coronary Spasm and Atherosclerotic Plaque Are Different Methamphetamine Research Claims
A cardiovascular review combines human observations, case reports, animal experiments and cell studies. Their different endpoints do not establish one mechanism for every cardiac event.
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Does an ADHD Confidence Index Diagnose ADHD After Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure?
An IDEAL study found more children above a computerized test threshold, alongside several null task findings. The index was not an independently established ADHD diagnosis.
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Did Prenatal Methamphetamine Exposure Affect Every Measure of Childhood Inhibitory Control?
A 66-month IDEAL assessment linked heavier reported exposure to accuracy on difficult task conditions. Reaction-time results and lower-frequency exposure comparisons were different.
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Is R-Methamphetamine Pharmacologically Inactive? What a 99-Participant Evidence Base Can Show
A systematic review found a small, heterogeneous human evidence base. Lower activity at some doses does not establish inactivity at every dose or route.
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Can Refrigeration Alone Prevent Ethanol Formation in Postmortem Tissue?
Nine tissue specimens from separate aviation fatalities formed ethanol without storage preservative, even at 4°C. The experiment tested homogenates and does not supply a correction for a body’s ethanol concentration.
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Hydrocodone Redistribution: Why a Repeated Liver-to-Blood Outlier Matters
A 39-case study found generally low hydrocodone liver-to-peripheral-blood ratios, but one repeatedly measured high ratio was excluded from the summary. Neither finding supplies an individual antemortem correction.
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Can the Internal Standard Change a Reported Postmortem GHB Concentration?
Elliott’s paired method comparisons found substantial differences in some postmortem GHB results when the internal standard changed. Interpretation requires the measurement procedure as well as the concentration.
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Does Cardiac Blood GHB Above 50 mg/L Establish Ingestion?
In a 71-autopsy study, 14 cardiac blood GHB results exceeded 50 mg/L despite no case evidence supporting exposure. Paired femoral blood and vitreous findings show why collection site matters.
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Can a Brain GHB Cutoff Distinguish Intake From Postmortem Formation?
A 221-autopsy study proposed a tentative brain GHB threshold of 10 mg/kg for bodies with limited decomposition. Its findings do not validate that threshold in advanced decomposition or establish fatal intoxication.