Oral Cavity Fluid as an Investigative Approach for Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluations of Drugs in Postmortem Subjects.

A relatively overlooked aspect of forensic science is the potential of oral cavity fluid for contributing to a forensic diagnosis. Although traditional specimens, like blood and urine, are routinely evaluated for forensic toxicology testing, fluid from the oral cavity has not been investigated as a matrix in postmortem cases. Our laboratory developed and validated qualitative and quantitative analytical methods for determining 47 medicinal and illicit drugs from oral cavity fluid.