According to the literature [1] published by National Research Institute of Police Science, Japan, seven fatal poisoning cases due to local anaesthetics were reported to have occurred in
Trang 1© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005
Introduction
Local anaesthetics reversibly block neural transmission in local tissues Th e drugs are bound with specifi c receptors located inside the sodium channels of cell membranes, and thus block the permeability of sodium ions; this is the mechanism of anaesthetic action of these drugs
As the history of local anaesthetics, Von Anrep discovered the local anaesthetic action of an
alkaloid cocaine being contained in the leaves of Erythroxylon coca Th en, Karl Koller used cocaine as a local anaesthetic in ophthalmological surgery Since the middle of 1980s, an explo-sive abuse of cocaine appeared, because of its strong addictive eff ects on the central nervous system overwhelming the local eff ects, causing a serious social problem internationally In place of cocaine, procaine appeared in 1905 as the fi rst synthetic local anaesthetic, followed by the appearance of many synthetic drugs until nowadays
Local anaesthetics can be classifi ed into ester-type and amide-type drugs according to their structures Both types of the drugs diff er in the mode of metabolism and chemical stability Th e ester-type local anaesthetics are easily hydrolyzed by the action of pseudocholinesterase in blood plasma, and are also rapidly decomposed in alkaline solutions nonenzymatically Am-ide-type drugs are mainly metabolized by the liver microsomes and relatively stable in alkaline solutions Structures, physicochemical properties and clinical applications for cocaine and other local anaesthetics being frequently used in Japan are summarized in > Table 8.1 According to the literature [1] published by National Research Institute of Police Science, Japan, seven fatal poisoning cases due to local anaesthetics were reported to have occurred in 1995–1999 Th e contents of the cases were: 4 cases of suicide by oral and intravenous adminis-tration of lidocaine; one case each of medical accidents due to lidocaine, mepivacaine and dibucaine Th e local anaesthetics show relatively high incidence of anaphylactic shocks due to their administration; dibucaine, lidocaine and procaine sometimes cause problems [2] Th e
allergenicity observed for local anaesthetics are said to be mainly due to p-aminobenzoic acid,
the metabolite of the ester-type local anaesthetics, which has strong antigenicity as a haptene
Such shocks due to the amide-type drugs and their metabolites are very rare; but p-oxybenzoic
acid being added to injection solutions as preservative may provoke the allergic reaction Local anaesthetics in biomedical specimens can be detected by various chromatographic techniques [3–5] Among them, GC analysis is most recommendable, because it is relatively cheap and its handling and conditioning are simple; in addition, the use of the dual column mode and selective detectors enables the screening of many kinds of drugs easily In this chap-ter, a method for simultaneous GC analysis of seven local anaesthetics listed in > Table 8.1
and monoethylglycinexylidide ( MEGX), an active metabolite of lidocaine, is presented [6]
Trang 2⊡ Table 8.1
Structures, physicochemical properties and applications of local anaesthetics being widely used in Japan
Compound Physicochemical properties Applications
Ester type
cocaine hydrochloride MW = 339.8
Colorless crystals or white powder;
highly soluble in water, easily soluble
in glacial acetic acid or ethanol, slightly soluble in acetic anhydride and almost insoluble in ether;
melting point: about 197° C.
Topical anaesthesia: mucous membranes, eye drops, and external application
Ester type
tetracaine hydrochloride MW = 300.8
White crystals or powder; highly soluble in formic acid, soluble in water, slightly soluble in ethanol, relatively insoluble in anhydrous ethanol and almost insoluble in ether; melting point: 148° C.
Spinal, epidural, conduction, infiltration and topical anaesthesias
Ester type
procaine hydrochloride MW = 272.8
White crystals or powder; highly soluble in water, slightly soluble in ethanol and almost insoluble in ether; melting point: 155–158° C.
Spinal, epidural, conduction, and infiltration anaesthesias
Amide type
dibucaine hydrochloride MW = 379.9
White crystals or powder; highly soluble in water, ethanol and glacial acetic acid, soluble in acetic anhydride and almost insoluble in ether; hygroscopic; melting point:
95–100° C.
Spinal, caudal, conduction, infiltration and topical anaesthesias
Amide type
bupivacaine hydrochloride MW = 342.9
White crystal; soluble in glacial acetic acid, slightly soluble in water and ethanol and almost insoluble in acetic anhydride, ether and chloroform; melting point: about 250° C
Epidural, conduction and spinal
anaesthesias
Amide type
mepivacaine hydrochloride MW = 282.8
White crystal and powder; soluble in water and methanol, slightly soluble
in glacial acetic acid, relatively insolu -ble in anhydrous ethanol and almost insoluble in ether; melting point:
about 256° C (decomposed)
Epidural, conduction and infiltration anaesthesias
Amide type
lidocaine hydrochloride MW = 288.8
White powder; highly soluble in water and ethanol, slightly soluble in chloroform and almost insoluble in ether; melting point: 76–79° C.
Epidural, conduction, infiltration, topical and spinal anaesthesias, ventricular arrhythmia
Trang 3379 Local anaesthetics
Reagents and their preparation
• Cacaine hydrochloride and other local anaesthetics can be obtained from Sigma (St Louis,
MO, USA) MEGX hydrochloride was donated by Astra Japan (Osaka, Japan)
• Methanolic solutions of local anaestheticsa: 10 mg of hydrochloride salt of each drug is dis-solved in 100 mL methanol
• Internal standard (IS) solution a, b: 2 mg of ketamine hydrochloride (Sigma) is dissolved in
100 mL methanol
• Neostigmine bromide solution (0.05 µmol/mL)c : 15.2 mg neostigmine bromide (Sigma) is dissolved in 100 mL purifi ed water
• 1 M Carbonate buff er solution (pH 9.7): 1 M sodium carbonate solution/1 M sodium bicarbonate solution (7:2)
• 0.1 M Hydrochloric acid solution
• Diethyl ether and isoamyl alcohol: special grade commercially available
GC conditions
GC column d: a TC-5 wide-bore capillary column (5 % phenylmethylsilicone, 15 m × 0.53 mm
i d., fi lm thickness 1.5 µm, GL Sciences, Tokyo, Japan)
GC conditions: a Shimadzu gas chromatograph (GC-14B, Shimadzu Corp., Kyoto, Japan); detector: a fl ame thermionic detector ( FTD)e; column (oven) temperature: 150 °C (2 min)→
10 °C/min→ 300 °C (6.5 min); injection and detector temperature: 300 °C; carrier gas: Hef
(fl ow pressure 15 kPa)
Procedures
i Body fluid specimens including blood
i A 0.5-mL volume of a specimen and 1.5 mL of neostigmine bromide solution (0.05 µmol/ mL) g are placed in a test tube with a screw cap (16 × 130 mm with a round bottom) and vortex-mixed for several seconds
ii A 100-µL aliquot of IS solution and 2 mL of the carbonate buff er solution (1 M, pH 9.7) are added to the above mixture and vortex-mixed for several seconds, followed by the addition of 8 mL diethyl ether
iii Aft er the tube is capped, it is gentlyh shaken for 25 min using a shaker and centrifuged at 3,000 rpm for 5 min
iv Th e upper organic layer is transferred to a new disposable centrifuge tube (16 × 125 mm, with a round bottom) using a disposable polyethylene pipettei
v A 1-mL volume of 0.1 M HCl solution is added to the organic extract, vortex-mixed for
30 s and centrifuged at 3,000 rpm for 5 min
vi Th e upper organic layer is discarded by aspiration with an aspirator using a Pasteur pipette
vii To the aqueous phase, 4 mL diethyl ether is added, vortex-mixed for 10 s and centrifuged
at 3,000 rpm for 5 min, followed by the second removal of the organic layer with the aspi-rator
Trang 4viii To the aqueous phase, 1 mL of the carbonate buff er solution (1 M, pH 9.7) and 4 mL di-ethyl ether are added, vortex-mixed for 30 s and centrifuged at 3,000 rpm for 5 min
ix Th e upper organic layer is transferred to a new disposable small test tube (12 × 100 mm, with a round bottom) using a transfer pipette
x Aft er addition of 100 µL isoamyl alcohol to the organic layer, the latter is evaporated down to about 100 µLj under a gentle stream of nitrogen on an aluminum heating block
at 50 °C
xi Aft er cooling the test tube to room temperature, 1 µL of isoamyl alcohol layerk is injected into GC
ii Organ specimens
i A 1-g aliquot of tissue and 3 mL of neostigmine bromide solution (0.05 µmol/mL) are placed in a disposable test tube (16 × 100 mm, with a round bottom)
ii Th e tissue is minced and homogenized using a homogenizer
iii A 2-mL volume of the homogenate is placed in a test tube with a screw cap, and the follow-ing procedure is made accordfollow-ing to the steps ii.–xi for the above body fl uid specimens
iii Construction of calibration curves
i Various volumes (1–20 µL) of methanolic solution (100 µg/mL) of each drug are placed in more than 5 test tubes with screw caps Th e solutions are evaporated to dryness under a gentle stream of nitrogenl
ii A 2-mL volume of purifi ed water m is added to each tube and vortex-mixed for several seconds
iii Th e following procedure is conducted according to the steps ii.–xi for the body fl uid speci-mens
Assessment of the method
i Advantages of the method
Th e procedure is simple
Organ specimens, together with body fl uid specimens, can be analyzed
No extraction columns n are not necessary and the cost is cheap
ii Disadvantages of the method
Highly infl ammable diethyl ether o is used in this method
When the specimens to be analyzed are many, the time required for the extraction proce-dure becomes long; in such a case, the organic solvent and buff er solution should be handled using dispensers
iii Detection limits and reproducibility of the method
Limits of detection (S/N=3) from blood obtained by this method using GC-FTD are: 5 ng/mL for lidocaine, mepivacaine, tetracaine and bupivacaine, 10 ng/mL for cocaine and dibucaine,
15 ng/mL for procaine and 20 ng/mL for MEGX
Th e calibration curves with blood and water specimens were linear in the range of 0–4 µg/
mL with correlation coeffi cients of 0.995–0.999 Th e coeffi cient of a slope for a blood specimen
Trang 5was similar to that for a water specimen, for each drug (> Table 8.2) p Th e coeffi cients of variation were satisfactory with the values of 0.01–16.5 %
> Figure 8.1 shows gas chromatograms obtained from extracts of blank blood and blood
spiked with 4 µg/mL of each drugq
Poisoning cases, and toxic and fatal concentrations
Lidocaine
Th e therapeutic concentrations of lidocaine are 2–5 µg/mL in blood plasma; at not lower than 6–8 µg/mL, the toxic symptoms, such as mental derangement, vertigo, anxiety, delirium, paresthesia, hypotension, CNS suppression and convulsion, may appear [7, 8] Bromage and Robson [9] reported the peak blood lidocaine concentrations of 9.0–14.0 µg/mL associated with toxic symptoms for 4 subjects, who had been administered 425–1,000 mg of lidocaine by intravenous drop infusion Edgren et al [10] reported blood lidocaine concentration of 19.2 µg/mL associated with insuffi ciency of heart muscle contraction and epileptic grand mal for a 6-year-old child, who had been administered 1,200 mg lidocaine intravenously; but the child could recover later
When blood plasma lidocaine concentration exceeds 14 µg/mL, the possibility of fatality becomes much higher [7] In the cases of 5 adult patients, who had received intravenous ad-ministration of 250–2,000 mg lidocaine and died several minutes aft er, their blood lidocaine concentrations were 6–33 µg/mL [11–13] Grimes and Cates [14] reported blood lidocaine
⊡ Table 8.2
Calibration curves and CV values for local anaesthetics in blood and water
Drug Matrix Regression equation* CV value
(%, n=3)
lidocaine blood
water
y=0.268 x + 0.0262 (r=0.998) y=0.264 x + 0.0135 (r=0.999)
0.01–4.86 0.77–3.63
water
y=0.0528 x + 0.0004 (r=0.996) y=0.0578 x – 0.0032 (r=0.999)
4.34–7.07 0.01–4.86 procaine blood
water
y=0.120 x – 0.0074 (r=0.995) y=0.129 x – 0.0171 (r=0.997)
8.04–15.4 7.25–16.1 mepivacaine blood
water
y=0.190 x + 0.0155 (r=0.997)
y=0.194 x – 0.0003 (r=0.999)
2.90–5.61 0.81–3.46 cocaine blood
water
y=0.126 x + 0.0054 (r=0.998) y=0.127 x – 0.0094 (r=0.999)
2.00–4.05 3.01–9.13 tetracaine blood
water
y=0.249 x – 0.0060 (r=0.997) y=0.258 x – 0.0303 (r=0.999)
6.18–11.8 4.32–15.7 bupivacaine blood
water
y=0.184 x + 0.0142 (r=0.997) y=0.189 x – 0.0012 (r=0.999)
0.57–6.21 0.36–3.19 dibucaine blood
water
y=0.148 x – 0.0050 (r=0.996) y=0.162 x – 0.0174 (r=0.999)
6.98–12.3 4.07–16.5
* Peak height ratios of a drug to IS in the concentration range of 0–4 µg/mL were used.
Poisoning cases, and toxic and fatal concentrations
Trang 6concentrations of 5 and 9 µg/mL for 2 females, who had died aft er paracervical block anaesthe-sia for artifi cial abortion In 3 fatal cases of oral lidocaine ingestion (25 g lidocaine ingested in one of the cases), its blood concentrations reached 11–92 µg/mL [12]
Peat et al [15] reported that the possibility of fatality was high when the tissue lido-caine concentrations were not lower than 15 µg/g for the brain, lung, heart muscle, liver and kidney
Th e incidence of fatality due to anaphylactic shock using lidocaine products (injection so-lutions) is relatively high One of such cases, which the author et al experienced, is described
as follows
A 61-year-old female received an intra-gingival injection of Xylocaine™ solution (contain-ing 2 % lidocaine and a small amount of epinephrine) at a dental clinic; the amount of lido-caine hydrochloride salt administered was estimated to be 54 mg She fell into a shock state soon Aft er emergent treatments, she was sent to a hospital; but she had been in the state of CPAOA By cardiopulmonary resuscitation eff orts, the heart beat could be regained, but she died about 12 h later Th e serum lidocaine concentrationr was 0.28 µg/mL; its concentrations
in the gingiva, into which the drug solution had been injected, were 1.2–1.3 µg/g
A
B
Gas chromatograms for the extracts of blood spiked (B) and not spiked (A) with 4 µg/mL each
of local anaesthetics 1: IS ( ketamine); 2: lidocaine; 3: a changed form of MEGX; 4: procaine; 5: mepivacaine; 6: cocaine; 7: tetracaine; 8: bupivacaine; 9: dibucaine.
⊡ Figure 8.1
Trang 7Procaine
Usubiaga et al [16] reported a peak plasma lidocaine concentrations of 21–86 µg/mL for
10 patients, who had received intravenous administration (administration intervals: 2–15 min)
of 18–55 mg/kg procaine and had shown convulsion; the plasma concentrations decreased to 1–13 µg/mL aft er the toxic symptoms were improved Wikinski et al [17] reported a peak blood procaine concentration of 96 µg/mL for a poisoned patient, who had received intrave-nous administration of 4,000 mg procaine
Mepivacaine
Th e therapeutic mepivacaine concentrations are being considered to be 2–5 µg/mL in blood plasma [7] Morishima et al [18] reported plasma mepivacaine concentrations of 4.4–8.6 µg/mL for 4 pregnant women, who had received its administration at their deliveries and shown toxic symptoms, such as anxiety, mental derangement, muscle contracture, nausea and vomiting Mepivacaine, administered to a mother, reaches her fetus by passing through the placenta Th e mean blood concentrations of such neonates in the presence and absence of toxic symptoms, such as bradycardia, were reported to be 4 and 1 µg/mL, respectively [19]
Th e blood mepivacaine concentrations of neonates, who had died of its poisoning, were 9.8–52 µg/mL [20,21] Th e blood and urine concentrations of the drug for a adult woman, who had received the administration of 3,000 mg of the drug and died of its poisoning, were re-ported to be 50 and 100 µg/mL, respectively [22] Th ere is also a report describing an autopsy case, in which 15.8–18.6 µg/mL of mepivacaine was detected from heart blood of a victim [23]; mepivacaine poisoning had been suspected for this victim
Cocaine
Cocaine is used only for topical anaesthesia in ophthalmological and otorhinolaryngological
fi elds of medicine Van Dyke et al [24] reported peak plasma cocaine concentrations of 0.12– 0.474 µg/mL for surgery patients, who had received intranasal administration of 1.5 mg/kg cocaine
In most poisoning cases (survived and fatal) with cocaine, they are almost due to its abuse; it is described in another chapter of this book in great detail and thus omitted in this section
Tetracaine
Since tetracaine is rapidly hydrolyzed to yield p-aminobenzoic acid by the action of
pseudo-cholinesterase in human bodies, it seems very diffi cult to detect tetracaine itself from blood or cerebrospinal fl uid Hino et al [25] could not detect any from blood, the brain stem, cerebrum, liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissues of a patient, who had died aft er receiving spinal anaes-thesia with 10 mg tetracaine; but they could detect 165, 235, 30.5, 194, 41.5 and 37.1 ng/mL or g
of p-aminobenzoic acid, respectively Th e data on postmortem stability of tetracaine should
Poisoning cases, and toxic and fatal concentrations
Trang 8be accumulated; but especially for tetracaine poisoning cases, the analysis of p-aminobenzoic
acid together with unchanged tetracaine seems necessary
Bupivacaine
When 400 mg bupivacaine was administered for intercostal nerve block, the peak plasma concentrations in arterial and venous blood were 1.72–4.00 and 1.40–3.45 µg/mL, respectively [26] Th e toxicity of bupivacaine is several times higher than that of lidocaine; plasma bupi-vacaine concentrations at as low as 1.5–2.3 µg/mL can cause poisoning symptoms, such as vertigo, tinnitus and hypotension [27,28] Yoshikawa et al [29] reported blood bupivacaine concentrations of 9 and 12 µg/mL for two patients, who had received intercostal nerve block with about 210 mg bupivacaine and fallen into muscle contracture Th ere is also a report de-scribing a poisoning case, in which convulsion appeared aft er intravenous administration of bupivacaine; its concentration in arterial blood was 5.4 µg/mL [30]
Dibucaine
Dibucaine shows toxicity higher than procaine as an injection drug; as a topical anaesthesia drug, dibucaine also shows higher toxicity than cocaine [7] Th ere is a report describing a fatal case with oral intake of dibucaine; 0.6 µg/mL of dibucaine and 1.5 mg/mL of ethanol were detected from blood of this victim [7]
Notes
a) Th e long storage of the solutions in dark brown bottles is possible at room temperature b) If one of the local anaesthetics except mepivacaine is targeted for analysis, methanolic solu-tion of carbinoxamine maleate (10–20 µg/mL) can be used as IS solution
c) Since the ester-type local anaesthetics are hydrolyzed by cholinesterase in biomedical specimens, neostigmine bromide is used to inhibit such reaction When sodium fl uoride (NaF: fi nal concentration 1 %), being usually used as a preservative, was used as a cholines-terase inhibitor, the recovery rates of cocaine and procaine (about 2 µg/mL) from blood were about 100 %, but only about 50 % for tetracaine Th e recovery rates of tetracaine decreased according to decrease in its concentration even in the presence of 1 % NaF; at 0.1 µg/mL tetracaine in blood, its recovery rate became to be 0 % By using neostigmine bromide, almost 100 % recovery from blood could be attained for cocaine, procaine and tetracaine
d) For simultaneous screening of many drugs, capillary columns are much superior to packed columns in view of sensitivity and resolution Wide-bore capillary columns are recom-mendable, because of its easy handling Except TC-5 (corresponding to DB-5 and HP-5), TC-1 (corresponding to DB-1 and HP-1) can be used for sensitive simultaneous analysis With use of TC-17 (corresponding to DB-17 and HP-50+), the separation of cocaine from bupivacaine is insuffi cient; the sensitivity of dibucaine becomes lower, because the upper limit of oven temperature for TC-17 is 260 °C resulting in the elongation of the retention
Trang 9time of dibucaine and in broadening the peak However, the dual column GC using both TC-1 and TC-17 is very useful for screening of local anaesthetics and other drugs with high quality
e) A surface ionization detector ( SID) can be also used for sensitive detection of local anaes-thetics in place of an FTD [31] Th e usual FID can be also used, though the sensitivity is about ten times lower than that of an FTD [3]
f) Nitrogen gas can be also used for sensitive analysis
g) When a target compound is an amido-type local anesthetic, it is not necessary to use cho-linesterase inhibitor; 1.5 mL purifi ed water can be used instead
h) When the mixture is shaken vigorously, emulsion formation may take place according to the nature of a specimen
i) ELKAY LIQUIPETTE™ from Tyco Healthcare Group LP (Mansfi eld, MA, USA) (capacity 3.5 mL, length 150 mm, graduated up to 1 mL) can be used for organic solvents, because
no impurity peaks due to the plastic resin of the pipette appear upon GC analysis Th e pi-pette has no possibility of being broken unlike a Pasteur pipi-pette, does not need rubber spoids and is very easy for handling
j) When the organic layer is completely evaporated to dryness, local anaesthetics are lost to various extent For this reason, a small amount of isoamyl alcohol is added to prevent such complete evaporation However, when the test tube is left on a heating block for a long time, even isoamyl alcohol together with a local anaesthetic is evaporated
k) Th e free form of MEGX is unstable in isoamyl alcohol and changed into a compound having a mass spectrum shown in > Figure 8.2 within 2–3 h aft er the extraction
proce-dure; the retention time of the changed compound is longer than that of MEGX Th erefore, when MEGX is the object for analysis, the isoamyl alcohol extract should be left for more than 3 h at room temperature to convert MEGX into the changed compound completely However, such analysis of MEGX is required, only when lidocaine is detected
l) When evaporation is made at temperatures higher than the ambient one, a part of a local anaesthetic may be lost
m) When the same volume of blank blood is used for constructing a calibration curve, 1.5 mL
of 0.05 µmol/mL neostigmine bromide aqueous solution and then 0.5 mL of blank blood should be added in place of 2 mL of purifi ed water When the blank blood is added fi rst, an ester-type local anaesthetic is hydrolyzed
n) To extract local anaesthetics from body fl uid specimens, such as urine and cerebrospinal
fl uid, Sep-Pak®C18 cartridges (Waters, Milford, MA, USA) [31] or Extrelut® columns ( Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) [5] can be used
o) Except diethyl ether, the combination of n-chlorobutane/isoamyl alcohol (98:2, the 1st
ex-traction solvent) and 2-methylbutane/toluene/isoamyl alcohol (95:4:1, the 2nd exex-traction solvent) is very useful for extensive screening of basic drugs [6], but the extraction effi ciency
of MEGX becomes 4–5 times lower MEGX can be extracted with n-chlorobutane, ethyl
acetate or dichloromethane from alkaline solution with high effi ciency, but the effi ciency of back-extraction into 0.1 M HCl solution is very low for MEGX Unless the repeated extrac-tions are made, the above organic solvents seem suitable for extraction of MEGX
p) Since the body fl uid or organ specimen had been diluted 8-fold before extraction with diethyl ether in this method, the extraction effi ciencies of local anaesthetics are almost not aff ected by specimen matrices Th erefore, to construct a calibration curve, purifi ed water can be used in place of blank blood without problems
Poisoning cases, and toxic and fatal concentrations
Trang 10q) For information, chromatograms for local anaesthetics obtained by the dual column GC (using TC-1 and TC-17 wide-bore capillary columns) are shown in > Figure 8.3.
r) Th ere is an important problem to be mentioned in lidocaine analysis for the cases, in which victims had received emergency treatments Lidocaine is detected with high incidence from specimens obtained from a victim, who had received endotracheal intubation [32]; in Japan, upon endotracheal intubation, 2–3 g of 2 % Xylocaine™ (lidocaine) jelly is generally applied to the tube for lubricating the intubation Th e lidocaine concentrations of heart and peripheral blood are usually lower than 1 µg/mL for victims, who had received tracheal intubation and died several hours later [32, 33] In the CPAOA cases ( with endo-tracheal intubation with lidocaine jelly) with a long time (30–60 min) of external cardiac massage, lidocaine can be absorbed into blood through the trachea by the artifi cial circula-tion, resulting in the distribution of lidocaine to a whole body [32, 33]; in such cases, the concentrations of lidocaine in heart and peripheral blood are usually lower than 1 µg/mL However, in the CPAOA cases of small infants, the blood lidocaine concentrations may exceed 10 µg/mL As shown in this case of anaphylactic shock against lidocaine (no lido-caine jelly was used during the resuscitation), many cases show blood lidolido-caine
concentra-EI mass spectra of MEGX and its changed form.
⊡ Figure 8.2