The Daily Bulletin Archive

Lee Ann Garrozo, a master's degree candidate in forensic science at Buffalo State, will present her master's thesis seminar, "Comparing the Quantitation of Opiates from Possible Drug Overdose Cases Using Results of Blood Analysis and Liver Analysis," at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in Science Building 272. Light refreshments will be served before the seminar. The Chemistry-Physics Seminar Series is supported by the Faculty-Student Association.

Abstract
Currently the quantitation of opiates at the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office Toxicology Laboratory is conducted through whole blood analysis. The objective of this thesis project was to determine if the analysis of opiates could be conducted through liver analysis, and if the analysis of opiates would provide a more accurate quantitation compared with the blood analysis. The quantitation of opiates were analyzed from the livers of 64 possible overdose cases that were brought into the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office between 2013 and 2015. Results showed that the opiate drugs could successfully be quantitated using the liver analysis. Generally the data showed there to be quantitatively more drugs measured in the liver in comparison to the blood. The liver is the primary site for the metabolism of toxins in the body, and results conclude that opiates are present, generally, in higher levels in the liver than in the blood.