Non-invasive Testing for Drugs in Fingerprints to Address an Unmet Need of Coroners

每年，英国验尸官在没有进行毒理筛查的情况下释放了超过12万具身体。这是因为无法在不要求进行昂贵的尸检的情况下采集所需的侵入性体液/组织样本。然而，这意味着许多可能是由于故意或意外滥用药物(如鸦片类药物)而导致的死亡没有上报。申请者使用了东英吉利大学的研究创造的技术，开发了一种独特的技术，可以通过非侵入性指纹样本识别最近的毒品使用历史，使用手持设备可以在短短10分钟内完成。这项计划建议采用这项技术，为死因裁判官提供具成本效益的滥用药物筛查工具。这项技术在急救医学、罪犯管理和戒毒治疗方面也具有巨大的潜力。

Each year over 120,000 bodies are released by UK Coroners without toxicology screening. This is due to the inability to take the invasive body fluid/tissue samples required without calling for a costly post-mortem. However, this means that many deaths that may have been caused by intentional or accidental misuse of drugs (such as opiates) go unreported. The applicants, employing technology created from research at the University of East Anglia, has developed a unique technology that allows identification of the recent drug use history from non-invasive fingerprint samples that can be carried out in as little as 10 minutes using a hand-held device. This project proposes to employ this technology to provide Coroners with a cost-effective screening tool for drugs of abuse . The technology also has significant potential for use in emergency medicine, offender management and drug rehabilitation treatment.