Sasao Ako, Yonemitsu Kosei, Ohtsu Yuki, Tsutsumi Hiroshi, Furukawa Shota, Nishitani Yoko
Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Japan.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Japan.
Forensic Sci Int. 2023 Dec;353:111872. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111872. Epub 2023 Oct 27.
Analysis of volatile hydrocarbons in blood from fire-related deaths provides useful information such as whether the victim inhaled smoke from the fire before death or whether an accelerant was used in the fire. In this study, we used headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to quantify volatile hydrocarbons in post-mortem heart blood from 121 fire victims. The cases were classified into the following four groups according to the detected volatile hydrocarbons: construction fires without accelerants, kerosene fires, gasoline fires, and a group with no fire-related hydrocarbons detected (other fires). We investigated the relationships between blood concentrations of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) and volatile hydrocarbons, and between various volatile hydrocarbons. The mean COHb concentrations were higher in the construction fire group than in the kerosene and gasoline fire groups. In the construction fire group, there was a high correlation coefficient between the concentrations of benzene and COHb and relatively high coefficient correlations between the concentrations of benzene and toluene, benzene and xylene, toluene and styrene, and ethylbenzene and styrene. Our results indicate that the relationships between benzene, xylene, and toluene concentrations could be used to distinguish between deaths in construction fires, kerosene fires, and gasoline fires.
对与火灾相关死亡案例的血液中的挥发性碳氢化合物进行分析，可提供有用信息，例如受害者在死亡前是否吸入了火灾产生的烟雾，或者火灾中是否使用了助燃剂。在本研究中，我们使用顶空气相色谱 - 质谱法对121名火灾受害者死后心脏血液中的挥发性碳氢化合物进行定量分析。根据检测到的挥发性碳氢化合物，将这些案例分为以下四组：无助燃剂的建筑火灾、煤油火灾、汽油火灾以及未检测到与火灾相关碳氢化合物的一组（其他火灾）。我们研究了碳氧血红蛋白（COHb）血液浓度与挥发性碳氢化合物之间的关系，以及各种挥发性碳氢化合物之间的关系。建筑火灾组的平均COHb浓度高于煤油和汽油火灾组。在建筑火灾组中，苯浓度与COHb浓度之间存在较高的相关系数，苯与甲苯、苯与二甲苯、甲苯与苯乙烯、乙苯与苯乙烯的浓度之间存在相对较高的系数相关性。我们的结果表明，苯、二甲苯和甲苯浓度之间的关系可用于区分建筑火灾、煤油火灾和汽油火灾中的死亡情况。
