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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is toxicology? |
The branch of science which deals with the nature, effects, and detection of poisons |
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What is a poison? |
A substance which causes harm to a living organism |
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What is the most common use of toxicology in a clinical setting? |
Examining overdoses |
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What is the most common substance found in overdoses? |
Alcohol |
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What is DSP? |
Deliberate self-poisoning |
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What occurs in a physical / microscopic examination? |
Looking at blood or urine for presence of specific molecules |
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When would classic analytical chemistry be used to diagnose toxicity? |
When the identity of the poison is suspected |
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What testing is classic analytical chemistry not used for and why? |
Screening-- too specific |
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What are the advantages of thin-layer chromatography? |
Quick results, identified several hundred drugs |
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What are the disadvantages of thin-layer chromatography? |
Expertise is needed for interpretation, therapeutic drug dosages look identical to toxic dosages, may not detect acidic drugs or those without nitrogen |
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What are group immunoassays? |
Immunoassays conducted for drug groups in blood and urine |
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What are the advantages of group immunoassays? |
Sensitive, automated, quantitative, point-of-care |
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What are the disadvantages of group immunoassays? |
Specific to tested drugs, do not distinguish between licit and illicit drugs, some false results |
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What are the advantages of specific immunoassays? |
Very sensitive and specific |
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What are the disadvantages of specific immunoassays? |
Expensive, not generalised |
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When might a specific immunoassay be ordered? |
To look for specific concentrations of drugs when other tests are not sensitive enough
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What are the disadvantages of a typical drug screen? |
Sensitivity may not be low enough for some drugs, may include non-illicit drugs |
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What is HPLC? |
High Performance Liquid Chromatography-- a method of examining toxicology |
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What is HPLC used for? |
Quantification of a specific drug, trypically therapeutic drug monitoring |
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What is the major disadvantage of HPLC? |
Cannot identify drugs, only quantify |
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What is GC? |
Gas chromatography |
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What is GC generally used for? |
Nitrogen & phosphorus detection for drug identification, generally alcohols |
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What are the disadvantages of GC? |
Requires specific conditions of extraction, interpretation can be complex & difficult, only detects N and P containing drugs |
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What is GC-MS? |
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy |
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What are the advantages of GC-MS? |
Rapidly enables precise identification of thousands of drugs, able to quantify |
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What are the disadvantages of GC-MS? |
Utility depends on technique, difficult to distinguish between therapeutic and toxic drug concentrations |
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What tests would be conducted on a patient in whom illegal drugs are possible but not suspected? |
Group immunoassays followed by GC-MS |
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What tests would be conducted on a patient in whom illegal drugs are suspected? |
TLC, GC, and GC-MS |
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What tests would be conducted on a patient who has taken a known drug and is suspected to have overdosed? |
HPLC or specific immunoassays |
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What tests would be conducted on a deceased patient who may have died from an overdose? |
Any or all tests |
