Semiquantitation of diphenidine in tissue sections obtained from a human cadaver in a poisoning case by direct MALDI-QTOF mass spectrometry

The standard addition method and its validation in forensic toxicology

Purpose

In the quantitative forensic toxicological analyses using instruments, major methods to be employed are conventional matrix-matched calibration method (MMCM). However, nowadays, the needs for using the standard addition methods (SAM) are increasing. In spite of this situation, there are no reports of the guidelines for the validations of SAM. In this review, the principle, how to perform it, advantages, disadvantages, reported application data, and the details of validation procedures for the SAM are described.

Methods

Various databases such as SciFinder, Google and Google Scholar were utilized to collect relevant reports referring to the SAM. The long experiences of our research group on the SAM were also included in this review.

Results

Although the experimental procedures for the SAM are much more laborious than those of the MMCM, the SAM is essential to quantify target xenobiotic(s) in special matrices such as human solid tissues or biles, which remarkably interfere with the usual quantitative analyses. The validation methods for the SAM have been also proposed for the cases in the absence of the blank matrices.

Conclusions

To our knowledge, this is the first presentation of detailed SAM procedure and its validation, which will facilitate the use of the SAM in forensic toxicology. Especially for its validation, new simple methods have been proposed.