[jacnic98]

Please....someone help me understand this. I'm going crazy.
I received a toxicology report today and I'm trying to find out if the Benzoylecgonine level is super high???
It is:  1244 nannograms/ml
I know it's high....but, is it super high? Would the person have been totally messed up at that level? The sample was taken from urine...the person in question committed suicide. The samples were only tested in the last couple of weeks and they were collected in the beginning of September (07). So, the urine was 4 months old at the time of testing. I don't know if that information changes anything, but I really would like an accurate analysis of this level. I hope someone can help me understand because I've been on this computer for hours trying to find the answer....and, I have not been very successful. Please....all of you super-smart people out there..

[enahs]

This page gives an abstract which gives a reference to levels in some patients.
http://www.jatox.com/abstracts/2000/october/478-williams.htm

This highest patient had a 3,361,000 ng/mL concentration of benzoylecgonine.

However, given the longest half-life of benzoylecgonine I could find of 8 hours, but to play it safe and make calculations nice, let's say the biological half-life is 10 hours. And lets say late September, so just count 100 days. That would be 240 half-lifes. That would be 2.19 x 10⁷⁵ ng/mL.

That would mean there would have to be 2.19x10⁶³ kg/mL.
This is not physically possible.

So unless this information is wrong:
http://www.jatox.com/abstracts/2000/october/478-williams.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=5LKRvV15UwUC&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=benzoylecgonine+urine+level&source=web&ots=u96M3muk_o&sig=zFgnWOqdslpE5tctxg7aXBJmupY#PPA133,M1
http://www.detoxrightnow.com/product_13586.html

I just do not see them detecting any real measurable amount in the urine after so long. Do not take this as final, let a biochemist ring in.

But if it is possible to get a hair-follicle and you need closure, getting that tested for signs of drugs and how much would be an option.

Just my two cents.


Note, unless the urine sample was frozen. I do not have any information about the biological half-life they refer to, and if frozen it could slow it down and essentially stop it. As this is a chemical half-life and not a nuclear one.

[jacnic98]

First, let me thank you for responding. I appreciate it. Well, I thought the sample was from urine, but it wasn't. It was a blood sample. But, it was still done in the last couple of weeks from a collected specimen during autopsy. I do not know how blood is stored, but it would have been tested 4 months after having collected it. Sorry to have been wrong about my original post....but, how does that affect the level now? Does anyone know? Is 1244 ng/ml super high?
Thanks

[enahs]

If it was done from a collected sample during autopsy, it can not be 4 months old.



At any rate, that level, as indicated by the first paper, is at the upper limit of average people admitted to the emergency room "29 randomly selected emergency department patients (19 males and 10 females, aged 19 to 55) whose urine screened positive for benzoylecgonine using fluorescence polarization immunoassay."

Again though, short half-life, if it was 100+ days old I do not see it lasting still. Also, blood does not last long at all outside the human body.

[jacnic98]

Okay...I'm confused then. Let me tell you what happened....we were waiting for a toxicology report for the 12 weeks they said it would take....well, we waited a bit longer. Then, we called. They said they never did one. So, since they keep specimens from autopsy for a certain amount of time (I'm not sure how long...my sister was a patholoy assistant so she knew they could still run the toxicology because they save specimens) the woman at the medical examiners office said she would find out and call if it couldn't be done. She never called, we then received the report in the mail a couple of weeks later....so....that is all I really know about it. I'm pretty much trying to put my mind at ease. I want to know that when this person took their life, they couldn't have possibly been in their right mind. Thanks for all your help.

[enahs]

Well, it is highish for blood, not for urine. Also keep in mind that, that might not be what they detected but what the value was after they accounted for the degradation over time. The only way to be certain is to look at the dates and methods and such on the paperwork and/or ask more question.

[jacnic98]

I will do that. Thanks for all your help.