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Postmortem blood concentrations of sartans measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

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Abstract

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the analysis of seven common sartans (candesartan, eprosartan, losartan, olmesartan, telmisartan, valsartan, and losartan carboxylic acid (EXP3174), the active metabolite of losartan) in postmortem blood samples with liquid–liquid extraction. Detection was accomplished by triple-quadrupole MS in the selected reaction monitoring mode. The validation procedure showed low limits of quantitation of 5 ng/mL for all compounds with good accuracy and precision. The matrix effect was evaluated from the variation of peak areas and concentrations. The method shows some matrix effect but the effect was efficiently compensated by using an internal standard method. The method was applied to the analysis of sartans in postmortem blood samples, and produced 534 positive findings during 2014–2015. Nine deaths were encountered where the concentration of a sartan was very high, indicating intoxication together with other causes of death or multi-drug intoxication. The quantitative results indicate that sartans do not show significant postmortem redistribution; thus concentrations higher than the therapeutic range can be considered as being toxic or fatal.

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Author notes

  1. Merja Gergov & Raimo A. Ketola

    Present address: Forensic Toxicology Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), P.O. Box 30, 00271, Helsinki, Finland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Kytösuontie 11, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Merja Gergov & Raimo A. Ketola

Authors
  1. Merja Gergov
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  2. Raimo A. Ketola
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Correspondence to Raimo A. Ketola.

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There are no financial or other relations that could lead to a conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

This article does not contain any studies with living human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The analysis of drugs from the autopsy specimens was performed according to the request of judicial authorities.

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Gergov, M., Ketola, R.A. Postmortem blood concentrations of sartans measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Forensic Toxicol 34, 235–243 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-016-0308-y

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