Member area login

You don't have or don't remember the password!
Click Here

Editor-in-chief
Maria Stella Graziani

Deputy Director
Martina Zaninotto

Associate Editors
Ferruccio Ceriotti
Davide Giavarina
Bruna Lo Sasso
Giampaolo Merlini
Martina Montagnana
Andrea Mosca
Paola Pezzati
Rossella Tomaiuolo
Matteo Vidali

EIC Assistant
Francesco Busardò

International Advisory Board Khosrow Adeli Canada
Sergio Bernardini Italy
Marcello Ciaccio Italy
Eleftherios Diamandis Canada
Philippe Gillery France
Kjell Grankvist Sweden
Hans Jacobs The Netherlands
Eric Kilpatrick UK
Magdalena Krintus Poland
Giuseppe Lippi Italy
Mario Plebani Italy
Sverre Sandberg Norway
Ana-Maria Simundic Croatia
Tommaso Trenti Italy
Cas Weykamp The Netherlands
Maria Willrich USA
Paul Yip Canada

Publisher
Biomedia srl
Via L. Temolo 4, 20126 Milano

Responsible Editor
Giuseppe Agosta

Editorial Secretary
Chiara Riva
Biomedia srl
Via L. Temolo 4, 20126 Milano
Tel. 0245498282
email: biochimica.clinica@sibioc.it

--------------------

ISSN print: 0393 – 0564
ISSN digital: 0392- 7091

BC: Articoli scritti da V. Balestra

Il laboratorio clinico nelle indagini tossicologiche
The role of clinical laboratory in toxicological investigations
E. Barzon \| V. Balestra \| G. Dall’Olio \| P. Papa \| M. Pellegrini \| G. Testino \| T. Trenti \| A. Veronesi \| D. Giavarina \|
<p>Clinical toxicology laboratory activities are carried out both for clinical purposes, providing support to the diagnosis and treatment of intoxicated patients, and for medico-legal aspects, providing data with value of judicial proof. The new Italian law (no. 41, March 23, 2016) considers vehicular homicide and road traffic injuries criminal offences to be severely punished, especially if the driver is under the influence of alcohol or psychotropic substances. Since toxicology results have an impact on administrative and legal decisions, analytical reliability and traceability of data, including the implementation of a chain of custody of samples, are crucial. Forensic toxicological analyses use conventional matrices (blood and urine) and alternative matrices (hair, saliva, sweat). To assess the current use of illicit drugs, blood is the matrix of choice because substance concentrations correlate with subject’s physical and mental status at the time of collection. On the other hand, urine testing is simple, rapid and non-invasive. A positive result indicates that the substance assumption was from several hours to a few days prior to sampling. The hair matrix is suitable to identify past use or abuse and segmental hair analysis allows the reconstruction of the history of abuse. Analytical methods for alcohol and drugs of abuse include qualitative screening tests and quantitative confirmatory tests. A negative result of the screening test does not require further investigation, while a positive result cannot assume forensic value without confirmatory analysis. The use of mass spectrometry in combination with chromatographic or electrophoretic separation techniques for confirmatory tests has found the consensus of the international scientific community.</p>
Biochimica Clinica ; 41(3) 216-227 Rassegne - Reviews