Publications by authors named "Ana Maria Bermejo Barrera"
Development and Validation of a Sonication-Assisted Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Procedure and an HPLC-PDA Method for Quantitative Determination of Zolpidem in Human Plasma and Its Application to Forensic Samples.
Molecules
May 2024
Article Synopsis
- A rapid and validated HPLC-PDA method was developed for extracting and quantifying zolpidem in plasma, ensuring high accuracy and recovery rates.
- The method was successfully applied to ten real postmortem samples, revealing that most deaths involving zolpidem also included other substances like alcohol or drugs.
Evaluation of an Oral Fluid Collection Device and a Solid-Phase Extraction Method for the Determination of Coca Leaf Alkaloids by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.
Molecules
January 2024
Some South American countries have ancient traditions that may pose legal problems, such as the consumption of coca leaves, as this can provide positive results for cocaine use after the analysis of biological samples. For this reason, it is necessary to find specific markers that help differentiate legal from illegal consumption, such as tropacocaine, cinnamoylcocaine, and especially hygrine and cuscohygrine. In this work, two techniques for collecting biological samples are compared: the Quantisal Oral Fluid collection device and passive drooling.
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- A new analytical method using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been developed for detecting and measuring Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and its metabolite in postmortem blood samples.
- The process involves a two-step liquid-liquid extraction and uses internal standards for accurate analysis, showing high sensitivity and simplicity.
- The method was validated with strong linearity and precision results, was used on real forensic samples, and proved effective in cases involving cannabis use.
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a very common behavior in our environment and a serious problem for public health. On the one hand, in 2016, 400,000 people died in the world in traffic accidents in which ethanol was involved. On the other hand, traffic accidents in which the use of drugs of abuse other than ethyl alcohol accounted for more than 160,000 deaths worldwide in 2017.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFANCA-positive vasculitis induced by levamisole-adulterated cocaine and nephrotic syndrome: The kidney as an unusual target.
Am J Case Rep
January 2014
Patient: Male, 36 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Levamisole-induced vasculopathy Symptoms: Purpuric skin lesions Medication: Levamisole Clinical Procedure: - Specialty: Internal Medicine.
Objective: Unusual clinical course.
Background: Levamisole has been detected in seized cocaine samples and a levamisole-induced vasculopathy (LIV) has been described, mainly focused on skin.
Article Synopsis
- A study analyzed acute intoxication cases at a hospital in Pontevedra from 2005 to 2008, focusing on the demographics, toxic agents, and outcomes of the patients involved.
- The research included data from 1,893 patients, primarily men with a mean age of 35.6 years, showing highest incident rates on weekends during summer months.
- Most poisonings were due to drugs of abuse (70.4%), primarily ethyl alcohol, while intentional overdoses for suicide attempts accounted for 18.8%; the overall mortality rate was very low at just 0.2%.
Alcohol is the most frequently abused 'addictive substance' that causes serious social problems throughout the world; thus alcoholism is of particular interest in clinical and forensic medicine. Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is a marker of recent alcohol consumption that detects alcohol use reliably over a definite time period. The present paper describes a new method for the determination of EtG in urine.
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