Key result
Fatal amlodipine overdose yields postmortem heart blood concentrations up to 2.4 mg/L.
Why the study?
Fatal overdoses of the calcium channel blocker amlodipine require detailed toxicological characterization to understand concentrations associated with death.
Case Report (n=2)
This report documents postmortem amlodipine concentrations in two fatal overdose cases, contributing to forensic toxicology reference data.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May aid forensic interpretation of amlodipine fatalities; extends sparse case data but leaves open larger confirmatory series.
Two fatal overdoses of the calcium channel blocker amlodipine are described. Postmortem samples were screened for volatiles and therapeutic and abused drugs. Amlodipine was measured by liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure photoionization-mass spectrometry. The heart blood amlodipine concentrations for the two cases were 2.4 and 0.95 mg/L, and amlodipine was quantified in all other tissues. In the first case, venlafaxine and norvenlafaxine were also found, and the angiotensin receptor antagonist olmesartan was tentatively identified. The concentrations of amlodipine are compared with previously reported fatal and nonfatal overdoses. The medical examiners ruled in both cases that the manner of death was suicide and the causes of death were mixed drug intoxication and amlodipine intoxication.
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Sklerov et al. (2006) conducted a case report in Amlodipine overdose (n=2). Amlodipine was evaluated on Heart blood amlodipine concentration. Two fatal cases of amlodipine overdose were found to have heart blood amlodipine concentrations of 2.4 and 0.95 mg/L, with causes of death ruled as suicide by intoxication.
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