- P-ISSN 1225-0163
- E-ISSN 2288-8985
Ethylene glycol (EG) is produced commercially in large amounts and is widely used as antifreeze or deicing solution for cars, boats, and aircraft. EG poisoning occurs in suicide attempts and infrequently, either intentionally through misuse or accidental as EG has a sweet taste. EG has in itself a low toxicity, but is in vivo broken down to higher toxic organic acids which are responsible for extensive cellular damage in various tissues caused principally by the metabolites glycolic acid and oxalic acid. The most conclusive analytical method of diagnosing EG poisoning is determination of EG concentration. However, victims are sometimes admitted at a late stage to hospitals or died during emergency treatment like a gastric lavage or found rotten dead, when blood EG concentrations are low or not detected. Therefore, in this study, the identification of EG was not only performed by gas chromatograpyc-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) following derivatization but also further toxicological analyses of metabolites, glycolic acid (GA) and oxalic acid (OA), were performed by ion chromatography in various biological specimens. A ranges of blood concentrations (3 cases) was 10 ~ 2,400 μg/mL for EG, 224 ~ 1,164 μg/mL for GA and ND ~40 μg/mL for OA, respectively, In other biological specimens (liver, kidney, bile and pleural fluid), a range of concentrations (3 cases) was ND ~55,000 μg/mL for EG, ND ~1,124 μg/mL for GA and ND ~60μg/mL for OA, respectively. Liver and kidney tissues were recommended specimens including blood because OA,a final metabolite of EG, was identified large amounts in these despite no detectable EG caused by some therapy.
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