The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Correspondence
PreviousPrevious
Volume 354:96-97 January 5, 2006 Number 1
NextNext

{gamma}-Hydroxybutyric Acid in Hair

Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF
-PDA Full Text
-Purchase this article

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited
-E-mail When Letters Appear

More Information
-Related Article
-PubMed Citation
To the Editor: The review (June 30 issue)1 on {gamma}-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) generated correspondence (Oct. 13 issue),2 which revealed that biochemical genetics laboratories can detect GHB.2 There is an additional detection method worth noting.

When a medicolegal issue is present (e.g., a drug-facilitated crime), finding a hard-to-detect drug can be important.3 GHB has amnesic properties3 and is fully and rapidly metabolized to carbon dioxide and water. Even succinic acid, a product of GHB metabolism, becomes undetectable in urine within hours of ingestion.

However, the GHB in the body of a crime victim is still present, even after it has been . . . [Full Text of this Article]


Related Letters:

{gamma}-Hydroxybutyric Acid
Sass J. O., Superti-Furga A., Ringel E. R., Addolorato G., Gasbarrini G., Zvosec D. L., Smith S. W.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2005; 353:1632-1633, Oct 13, 2005. Correspondence


HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.