Citation

Varlet V, Augsburger M. Int. J. Legal Med. 2013; 127(2): 413-418.

Affiliation

Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology Unit, University Centre of Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland, vincent.varlet@chuv.ch.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00414-012-0726-2

PMID

22718149

Abstract

A new analytical approach for measuring methane in tissues is presented. For the first time, the use of in situ-produced, stably labelled CDH(3) provides a reliable and precise methane quantification. This method was applied to postmortem samples obtained from two victims to help determine the explosion origin. There was evidence of methane in the adipose tissue (82 nmol/g) and cardiac blood (1.3 nmol/g) of one victim, which corresponded to a lethal methane outburst. These results are discussed in the context of the available literature to define an analysis protocol for application in the event of a gas explosion.

Language: en