Legal Medicine Studies on Sudden Death of Abusers of Methamphetamine.

许多人类滥用甲基苯丙胺(MA)的人在注射MA后突然死亡，原因是突然发生精神异常。对血液和每个器官中MA浓度的测量结果显示，与急性过量服用MA死亡的结果不同。因此，此类案件的直接死因带来了问题。为了阐明这种现象的机制，我们用MA给大鼠灌胃，研究MA在大鼠体内的分布以及脑内去甲肾上腺素(NE)、多巴胺(DA)和5-羟色胺(5-HT)浓度的变化。然后阐明了MA给药后出现的各种症状之间的关系。在给予MA后突然死亡的大鼠中，在死亡前立即注意到心率异常增加和体温突然上升。前者与脑内去甲肾上腺素的变化有关，后者与脑内5-羟色胺的变化有关。MA给药…后大鼠的各种异常行为大鼠体内MA浓度与去甲肾上腺素和多巴胺的变化无相关性，而与脑内去甲肾上腺素和多巴胺的变化有关。当大鼠长期给予MA时，脑中的儿茶酚胺浓度每隔一定时间测量一次，表现出与急性MA中毒死亡大鼠不同的特征性变化。另一方面，在习惯饮酒的人中，在滥用MA期间，异常骨盆的发生率在统计学上更高。在酒精偏好高的大鼠和无酒精偏好的大鼠分别给予MA后，前者的乙醇偏好发生了变化。服用MA后，两组患者的异常行为发生率也不同。这种反应的差异显然与这两组人大脑中原始儿茶酚胺浓度的不同有关。根据这些结果，我们得出结论，MA滥用者出现各种精神异常并随后猝死的原因之一是MA服药前后脑内儿茶酚胺浓度的异常变化，这可能是影响心脏和循环系统的其他部分。较少

Many human methamphetamine(MA) abusers die suddenly after MA injection following an abrupt occurrence of mental abnormalities. Measurement of MA concentration in the blood and each organ revealed results different from those in death due to an acute overdose of MA. The direct cause of death in such cases therefore presents problems. In an attempt to clarify the mechanism of this phenomenon, MA was administered to rats to study the distribution of MA in vivo along with the changes of the concentrations of norepinephrine(NE), dopamine(DA) and serotonin(5-HT) in the brain. The relathionship between various symptoms appearing after MA administration was then elucidated. In rats which died suddenly after MA administration, an abnormal increase of heart rate and an abrupt rise in body temperature was noted immediately before death. The former was suggested to be related to changes of NE in the brain, whereas the latter with 5-HT in the brain. Various abnormal behaviors of rats after MA admin … More istration showed no correlation with MA concentration in the body of the rats.Rather, it was shown to be related to changes of NE or DA in the brain. When MA was chronically administered to rats, catecholamine concentrations in the brain measured at certain intervals showed characteristic changes to be distinguished from those in rats which died of acute MA toxicity. In human habitual alcohol drinkers, on the other hand, the incidence of abnormal pyschoses was shown to be statistically higher during MA abuse. When MA was administered to rats with and without high ethanol preference, ethanol preference changed after MA administration in the former. The incidence of abnormal behavior after MA administration was also different between these two groups. Such a difference in response was apparently related to the difference in the original catecholamine concentration in the brain between these two groups. According to these results, we conclude that one of the causes of the appearance of various mental abnormalities in human MA abusers and subsequent sudden death is the abnormal changes of catecholamine concentration in the brain before and after MA administration.This is perhaps influencing the heart and other parts of the circulatory system. Less