Morphine Disposition in Opiate-Intoxicated Patients: Relevance of Nonspecific Opiate Immunoassays

The use of routine nonspecific immunoassays to detect or quantitate opiates in biological fluids raises the question of the relevance of such immunoassays in the investigation of opiate overdose disposition. We investigated the plasma disposition of morphine in 13 patients intoxicated by the intrsvs...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of analytical toxicology 1994-07, Vol.18 (4), p.189-194
Main Authors: Got, P., Baud, F.J., Sandouk, P., Diamant-Berger, O., Scherrmann, J.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Antibodies
Antibody Specificity
Biological and medical sciences
Data processing
Disposition
Drug addictions
Gastrointestinal tract
Heroin - poisoning
Humans
Intoxication
Kinetics
Medical sciences
Morphine
Morphine - immunology
Morphine - pharmacokinetics
Narcotics - immunology
Narcotics - metabolism
Narcotics - poisoning
Opiates
Overdose
Radioimmunoassay
Radioimmunoassay - methods
Toxicology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The use of routine nonspecific immunoassays to detect or quantitate opiates in biological fluids raises the question of the relevance of such immunoassays in the investigation of opiate overdose disposition. We investigated the plasma disposition of morphine in 13 patients intoxicated by the intrsvsscular (IV) (n = 5) or oral routes (n = 8) using both a highly morphine-specific antibody radioimmunossssy (RIA) and a nonspecific morphine RIA. Both RIAs showed a first-order elimination rate after IV intoxication (apparent plasma terminal half-life ranged from 2.9 to 4.7 hours for unchanged morphine and from 3.2 to 4.9 hours for total opiates) and a persistant opiate concentration with rebound after oral ingestion, suggesting a slow release of opiates from the gastrointestinal tract, in dealers and bodypackers. Moreover, IV and oral kinetic data were similar for the two RIAs, except for the ratio between total and unchanged morphine concentrations. The nonspecific morphine assay gave a threefold to 16-fold higher concentration than the specific morphine assay but with parallel kinetics for all patients. We conclude that the current, routine nonspecific morphine immunoassays could be a valuable analytical tool for investigating opiate toxicokinetics.
ISSN:0146-4760
1945-2403
DOI:10.1093/jat/18.4.189