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Title
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Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) : related fatalities in Antwerp, Belgium
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Author
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Abstract
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| During the Summer of 2001, 4 drug-related fatalities were encountered over a period of a few weeks in the Antwerp area, supposedly XTC-related deaths but in which toxicology revealed the presence of the designer drug paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA). In 2 cases, recorded clinical symptomatology was available: previous visit of a dance scene, alleged intake of XTC, aggressive behaviour, fever (> 40degrees C), profuse sweating, spastic movements, muscle cramps and sudden collapse. Postmortem findings were non-specific: facial cyanosis, mydriasis, oedema and congestion of lungs and brain, haemorrhagic gastritis and acute tubulus necrosis. Toxicology revealed levels of PMA ranging between 1.7 and 3.4 mug/ml in blood and between 3.4 and 10.7 mug/g in liver tissue. The pathophysiology of these deaths results from hyperpyrexia, rhabdomyolysis (acute tubular necrosis, hyperpotassaemia) and ventricular arrhythmia. This small lethal 'outbreak' of PMA-related fatalities was probably the result of a legal loophole since the precursor molecule (paramethoxy-phenylacetone) was at the time of these fatalities not a regulated substance in Belgium. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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16th Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, September 2-7, 2002, Montpellier, France
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Publication
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Bologna
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Medimond
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2002
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ISBN
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88-323-2902-6
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Volume/pages
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p. 81-84
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ISI
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000179396100015
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