Recherche des causes toxiques des morts suspectes dans le cadre de l'application de l'article 74 du code de procédure pénale

When a corpse is discovered, the public prosecutor may refer to article 74 of the penal procedure code to inquire into the possible toxic causes of the death. The toxicology laboratory is then the indispensable link for putting into light exogenous toxins in the available biological samples. The toxicologist expert must have access to suitable means to detect xenobiotics that are sometimes at extremely low concentrations. Mass spectrometry used with liquid or gaseous chromatography, or inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy is a great help to the analysis of complex biological matrices. This article presents the becoming of a post mortem sample in a medico-legal toxicology laboratory and shows the difficulties due to this type of biological matrices. It insists as well on the precautions the expert has to take in his commentaries on the possible significance of his results.