Citation

Matsubara K, Asari M, Suno M, Awaya T, Sugawara M, Omura T, Yamamoto J, Maseda C, Tasaki Y, Shiono H, Shimizu K. Leg. Med. (Elsevier) 2012; 14(4): 191-196.

Affiliation

Department of Hospital Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.legalmed.2012.01.013

PMID

22503241

Abstract

When the population parameters of drug pharmacokinetics in the human body system are known, the time-course of a certain drug in an individual can generally be estimated by pharmacokinetics. In the present two cases where methamphetamine abusers were suspected to have inflicted mortalities in traffic accidents, the time-elapse or duration immediately after methamphetamine injection to the time when the accidents occurred became points of contention. In each case, we estimated the time-course of blood methamphetamine after the self-administration in the suspects using a 2-compartment pharmacokinetic model with known pharmacokinetic parameters from the literatures. If the injected amount can be determined to a certain extent, it is easy to calculate the average time-elapse after injection by referring to reference values. However, there is considerable individual variability in the elimination rate based on genetic polymorphism and a considerably large error range in the estimated time-elapse results. To minimize estimation errors in such cases, we also analyzed genotype of CYP2D6, which influenced methamphetamine metabolism. Estimation based on two time-point blood samples would usefully benefit legal authorities in passing ruling sentences in cases involving similar personalities and circumstances as those involved in the present study.

Language: en