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Is it worth carrying out determination of n-butane in postmortem samples? A case report and a comprehensive review of the literature

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to illustrate the importance of n-butane determination in postmortem samples through a case report and to propose actions and precautions to be taken into consideration when butane is suspected to be involved in cases of death. The case concerns a 15-year-old boy found dead after sniffing a cigarette lighter refill. Toxicological investigation revealed the presence of butane in the heart and femoral blood (1280 and 1170 μg/L, respectively), in the gastric contents (326 μg/L), and in the liver (1010 μg/kg) and lung tissues (210 μg/kg). Propane was present only in the blood samples at concentrations tenfolds lower.

Butane can be involved in three kinds of fatalities: deliberate inhalations including volatile substance abuse (VSA), involuntary exposure, and homicides. A fatal outcome of butane inhalation can be caused by asphyxia and/or cardiac arrhythmia. In the context where butane exposure is evidenced by non-toxicological investigations, the usefulness of the determination of butane in postmortem samples is often questionable. However, it is admitted that butane-related deaths are generally underreported. Several difficulties including sample handling and storage, substantial variation in tissue concentrations, and lack of a lethal threshold make the interpretation of butane results challenging. In our opinion, systematic toxicological methods should be developed in order to analyze butane, at least when it concerns a typical VSA victim, even when butane is not actually suspected to be the cause of death.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Limoges, 87042, Limoges Cedex, France

    Souleiman El Balkhi & Jean-Michel Gaulier

  2. Department of Forensic medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Limoges, Limoges, France

    Caroline Coutaz-Fluck, Fanny Moreau & François Paraf

  3. Unit of Toxicology, University Hospital of Lille, Lille, France

    Jean-Michel Gaulier

Authors
  1. Souleiman El Balkhi
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  2. Caroline Coutaz-Fluck
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  3. Fanny Moreau
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  4. François Paraf
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  5. Jean-Michel Gaulier
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Correspondence to Souleiman El Balkhi.

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El Balkhi, S., Coutaz-Fluck, C., Moreau, F. et al. Is it worth carrying out determination of n-butane in postmortem samples? A case report and a comprehensive review of the literature. Int J Legal Med 130, 1223–1229 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1260-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1260-9

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