Colchicine poisoning: report of a fatal case with body fluid and post-mortem tissue analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography

Biomed Chromatogr. 1999 May;13(3):235-8. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0801(199905)13:3<235::AID-BMC827>3.0.CO;2-N.

Abstract

A case involving a suicide by the ingestion of colchicine tablets is presented. Liquid chromatography has been used to measure the drug level in blood and in post-mortem tissues of the patient (a 42-year-old man). Plasma concentration 24 h after ingestion was 4.5 ng/mL. On autopsy, the kidney showed the highest concentration (396 ng/g). High concentrations were also found in the liver (347 ng/g) and heart (334 ng/g). Low concentrations were detected in the lung (58 ng/g), muscle (10 ng/g) and brain (5 ng/g).

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Body Fluids / chemistry*
  • Calibration
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
  • Colchicine / blood
  • Colchicine / pharmacokinetics
  • Colchicine / poisoning*
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Poisoning / blood
  • Poisoning / pathology
  • Rats
  • Rats, Wistar
  • Reference Standards
  • Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
  • Suicide
  • Tissue Distribution

Substances

  • Colchicine