Brettell TA Author
Subjects of specialization
Affiliation
Forensic Toxicology , Postmortem
Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Cedar Crest College, PA 18104, USA
I am Brettell TA, belonging to Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Cedar Crest College, PA 18104, USA, interested in the field of Postmortem.
Research Article Open Access
Author(s): Grant CM, Brettell TA, Land SD and Staretz ME
Over recent years, the abuse of fentanyl and other opioids has become a slow motion mass disaster in the United States resulting in an increased number of drug-related deaths. Various postmortem biological samples are collected by forensic pathologists during autopsy and then sent to a toxicology laboratory to be analyzed for the presence of various compounds such as fentanyl. This process can be time consuming and results in a backlog, potentially hindering an investigation. A possible solution is Biocompatible Solid-Phase MicroExtraction (BioSPME) fibers. These fibers can be directly inserted into a biological matrix and absorb drug compounds without the interference of macromolecules that may be present allowing for a faster analysis time. An initial method has been developed to anal... view moreĀ»