A suicide by pancuronium bromide injection: evaluation of the fluorometric determination of pancuronium in postmortem blood, serum and urine.

A fatal case of suicidal injection of pancuronium bromide is presented. Pancuronium was detected in blood and urine by ion-pair extraction and fluorometry. An evaluation of the fluorometric procedure for the determination of pancuronium in postmortem blood, serum and urine is presented. Stability of the extracted ion-pair, possible interferences from other drugs, and the effects of specimen storage were studied.