Drug concentrations of the bone marrow aspirates in forensic autopsy cases

Possible usefulness of the bone marrow as an alternative material to blood sample in forensic toxcology has been reported by Winek et al.(1, 2, 3). We have previously verified the utility of the bone marrow aspirate in analysis of volatile substances including alcohol and cyanide in forensic autopsy materials (4). In the present study, we investigated the utility of this method in drug analysis. Although concentrations of sedative-hypnotic drugs and amphetamines in bone marrow aspirate showed a higher value than those in the heart blood, there was a high correlation between both. The results showed possible usefulness of bone marrow aspirate for analyzing drugs when the blood is not available due to postmortem interference.