Rhabdomyolysis in drug-related deaths

Abstract Background This study aims to detect myoglobin staining in the cases in which were suspected that intoxication was the cause of death. Materials and method This study selected the drug-related death cases including those with toxic blood levels of substances. These drug-related death cases...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Natarat Kaisang, Kotchakorn Promsawat, Weerachai Jantasorn, Smith Srisont
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2020-07-01
Series:Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41935-020-00195-2
Description
Summary:Abstract Background This study aims to detect myoglobin staining in the cases in which were suspected that intoxication was the cause of death. Materials and method This study selected the drug-related death cases including those with toxic blood levels of substances. These drug-related death cases were classified into two groups: (1) suggestive of intoxication death group and (2) other causes of death group which was control group. The kidneys of all these cases were immunohistochemically stained with the myoglobin antibody for rhabdomyolysis diagnosis. Results There were 50 drug-related deaths separated into 28 study cases and 22 control cases. The positive myoglobin stain was found in 17 cases (60.7%) in the study group and 5 cases (22.7%) in the control group. The difference between two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.007). Conclusions Myoglobin detection in kidney by immunohistochemistry should be done to help for confirming the cause of deaths in these drug-related death cases.
ISSN:2090-5939