Distribution of cyanide in heart blood, peripheral blood and gastric contents in 21 cyanide related fatalities

This paper presents 21 cases related to cyanide intoxication by oral ingestion. Cyanide concentrations in biological specimens are especially different from the type of postmortem specimens, and very important in interpreting the cause of death in postmortem forensic toxicology. Besides the detection of cyanide in autopsy specimens, the autopsy findings were unremarkable.Biological samples (0.2 mL or equal to less than 10 μg of cyanide) were analyzed colorimetrically for cyanide. In a series of 21 cyanide fatalities, the concentration ranges (mean ± SD) of cyanide in heart blood, peripheral blood and gastric contents were 0.1–248.6 mg/L (38.1 ± 56.6 mg/L), 0.3–212.4 mg/L (17.1 ± 45.1 mg/L) and 2.0–6398.0 mg/kg (859.0 ± 1486.2 mg/kg), respectively. The ranges of the heart/peripheral blood concentration ratio and gastric contents/peripheral blood concentration ratio were 0.3–10.6 (mean 3.4) and 3.4–402.4 (mean 86.0), respectively. From the difference of cyanide concentration and the concentration ratio of cyanide in different types of postmortem specimens, the possibility of the postmortem redistribution of cyanide and death by oral ingestion of cyanide could be confirmed. We reported cyanide fatal cases along with a review of literature.