Nara Akina, Yamada Chiho, Kodama Takanori, Saka Kanju, Takagi Tetsuya
Division of Legal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 4-4-1 Komatsushima, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi, 981-8558, Japan.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.
J Forensic Sci. 2018 Nov;63(6):1928-1931. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.13781. Epub 2018 Mar 30.
Organophosphates are widely used as pesticides. However, organophosphates are occasionally orally ingested to commit suicide. In this case, a man in his late 80s committed suicide by ingesting both dichlorvos and phenthoate. Autopsy findings revealed a characteristic volatile odor from his mouth, stomach, lungs, liver, and kidneys. The esophageal mucosa was denatured and had lost elasticity. Serum cholinesterase activity was 9 IU/L. Toxicological analyses performed using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry revealed that dichlorvos concentrations in the left and right cardiac blood samples were 11.6 and 4.6 μg/mL, respectively. Phenthoate concentrations in the left and right cardiac blood samples were 5.8 and 0.51 μg/mL, respectively. The total amounts of dichlorvos and phenthoate in the stomach were 7.35 and 4.55 g, respectively. The case history, autopsy findings, and toxicological analyses indicated that the cause of death was acute fatal poisoning after oral ingestion of both dichlorvos and phenthoate.
