Citation

Vignali C, Freni F, Magnani C, Moretti M, Siodambro C, Groppi A, Osculati AMM, Morini L. Forensic Sci. Int. 2019; 307: e110108.

Affiliation

Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.110108

PMID

31877542

Abstract

Quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorders and sometimes as a sleep aid. It is frequently found in post-mortem samples. The quantitative determination of active metabolites may help in the interpretation of the potential toxic effects of the parent drug and its role in death. A fully validated LC-MS/MS method was developed for the identification and quantification of quetiapine and two main metabolites (N-desalkylquetiapine and 7-hydroxyquetiapine) in blood, biological fluids and tissues. Then, the distribution of analytes in different matrices was evaluated. LODs of 0.9, 0.3 and 0.3ng/mL were calculated for quetiapine, N-desalkylquetiapine and 7-hydroxyquetiapine respectively; while a LOQ at the concentration of 10.0ng/mL was defined for the three analytes. 13 post-mortem positive real cases have been included in the experiment. The results revealed that quetiapine and N-desalkylquetiapine might undergo a significant post-mortem redistribution, while 7-hydroxyquetiapine is less affected by this factor. N-desalkylquetiapine could be found in blood in relatively high concentrations in comparison to those of quetiapine; therefore, it should be always advisable to measure both the analytes. The analysis of tissues could provide additional data on potential intoxication with quetiapine.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Language: en

Keywords

7-hydroxyquetiapine; LC–MS/MS; N-desalkylquetiapine; Quetiapine; Therapeutic levels; Tissue distribution