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The potential of Raman and FT-IR spectroscopic methods for the detection of chlorine in human nail samples

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Abstract

Although chlorine (Cl2) has been used as a chemical warfare agent since World War I there is no known specific and reliable biomarker to indicate the presence of chlorine. We distinguished chlorinated human nails from unchlorinated ones using Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy. This research was carried out between October 2018 and July 2019 on two nail samples taken from 55 male and 104 female volunteers. One sample from each participant was chlorinated, while the second sample was used as a control. Spectral data were collected from chlorinated and unchlorinated (control) human nails using Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy. Raman measurements were made between 100 and 3200 cm−1, while FT-IR measurements were recorded over the range of 650 to 4000 cm−1. Partial least squares regression-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used to develop classification models for each spectral instrument. Results showed that the control and chlorinated nail samples were successfully discriminated with similar results achieved with both instruments. Minor differences were observed in the performance of classification models. The FT-IR spectroscopy model (sensitivity = 95%, specificity = 99%, accuracy = 97%) was found to be more successful with a smaller margin of error (sensitivity = 95%, specificity = 99%, accuracy = 96%) compared to the Raman spectroscopy model. This method can be used successfully for both ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnosis of chlorine exposure.

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Funding

This work was partly supported by OPCW [Grant No. L/ICA/ICB/210503/17],

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istanbul Medical Faculty, Department of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Sadik Toprak

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Field Crops, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey

    Fatih Kahriman

  3. Civil Engineering Department of Materials Science, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey

    Zekeriya Dogan

  4. Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gokhan Ersoy

  5. Department of Medical Pharmacology, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey

    Emine Yilmaz Can

  6. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Histology and Embryology, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey

    Meryem Akpolat

  7. Department of Biochemistry, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey

    Murat Can

Authors
  1. Sadik Toprak
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  2. Fatih Kahriman
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  3. Zekeriya Dogan
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  4. Gokhan Ersoy
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  5. Emine Yilmaz Can
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  7. Murat Can
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gokhan Ersoy.

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Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethics approval (include appropriate approvals or waivers)

This study was approved by the Bulent Ecevit University Medical Ethics Committee (2018-62-28/02).

Consent to participate and publication (include appropriate statements)

55 male and 104 female volunteers were informed and gave their consent to the study.

Code availability (software application or custom code)

-The mixOmics package 22, 23 was used to develop classification models in R software (R Core Team, 2018).

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Toprak, S., Kahriman, F., Dogan, Z. et al. The potential of Raman and FT-IR spectroscopic methods for the detection of chlorine in human nail samples. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 16, 633–640 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00313-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00313-5

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