Abstract
Methidathion is one of the organophosphorus pesticides commonly used for stamping out harmful pests in farming areas. This paper presents a fatality due to methidathion intoxication and describes the distribution of methidathion in postmortem blood and tissues obtained at autopsy. Qualitative identification of methidathion was achieved by TLC, GC and GC/MS, and quantitative analysis was performed by GC with thermionic specific detector (TSD). The analytes in postmortem specimens were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) with ethylether. After the ethylether layer was evaporated, the residue was partitioned into hexane and acetonitrile, and the acetonitrile layer was used for analysis. Tissue specimens were homogenized with 4% perchloric acid and applied for LLE. After extraction, the extracts were reconstituted 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$ pyraclofos (IS, 100 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ml in methanol) for GC and GC/MS analysis. On analysis of postmortem specimens, methidathion was identified and quantitated. The methidathion concentrations were 2.0 $\mu$l/ml in blood, 24.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g in liver, 13.9 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g in lung, 21.8 $\mu\textrm{g}$/g in kidney, respectively.