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Distribution of zolpidem in body fluids and organ tissues in five autopsy cases

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Abstract

We investigated the distribution of zolpidem throughout femoral vein blood, urine, stomach contents, the brain, lung, liver, and kidney in five autopsy cases using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Four out of the five cases showed toxic levels of zolpidem. Only one case showed a lethal blood level. The zolpidem concentrations in solid organ tissues were generally several times higher than that in blood. Among four solid organ tissues, the differences in concentration were not drastic; they were similar or within the same order of magnitude except for one case. These results suggested that measurements of zolpidem concentrations in multiple solid organ tissues are useful for estimating whether zolpidem poisoning is related to the cause of death, especially when blood cannot be collected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic and Social Environmental Medicine, Division of Environmental Science, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa, 920-8640, Japan

    Tatsunori Takayasu

  2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan

    Yuko Ishida, Akihiko Kimura, Mariko Kawaguchi & Toshikazu Kondo

Authors
  1. Tatsunori Takayasu
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  2. Yuko Ishida
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  3. Akihiko Kimura
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  4. Mariko Kawaguchi
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  5. Toshikazu Kondo
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Correspondence to Tatsunori Takayasu.

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Takayasu, T., Ishida, Y., Kimura, A. et al. Distribution of zolpidem in body fluids and organ tissues in five autopsy cases. Forensic Toxicol 26, 80–84 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-008-0055-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11419-008-0055-9

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