Forensic toxicology. An overview and an algorithmic approach.

Forensic toxicology has benefited from advances in immunoassay and thin layer chromatography (Toxi-Lab) chemistry and widespread availability of sophisticated instrumentation, such as gas chromatography with mass spectroscopy. Coupled with the increasingly widespread proliferation of illicit drugs of abuse, these have added new challenges to old adversaries in the medicolegal investigation of death. This article presents a comprehensive approach to forensic toxicology from a metropolitan medical examiner's office with emphasis on common questions and problems encountered in this discipline.