510616 - FORENSIC TOXICOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

courses

ID:

510616

Duration (hours):

24

CFU:

SSD:

MEDICINA LEGALE

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (29/09/2025 - 23/01/2026)

Course Objectives

The main objective of the course is to provide general information about Forensic Toxicologist professional figure. Learning outcome will be measured by the evaluation of the student skill in: a) explaining the role of expert witnesses; b) describing the main analytical methods to be used and developed in a forensic toxicological lab; c) knowing the most frequently detected substances and italian laws regarding their consumption; d) facing real cases from both the analytical and the interpretative point of view

Course Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of chromatography, mass spectrometry and analtyical chemistry is required by the student approaching this course. Moreover, a background information about kinetics, dynamics and human metabolism are also required

Teaching Methods

The first part of the course is organized through the administration of frontal lessons, in order to provide to the students all the elements and general notions of Forensic Toxicology. During the second phase, data and information relating to real cases of forensic toxicological interest are provided to the students, after anonimization; students will be asked to deal with the cases, from an analytical and interpretative point of view, using the knowledge aquired during frontal lessons. The students should reply to specific questions regarding the cases, thus evaluating their aquired skill in problem solving in Forensic Toxicology

Assessment Methods

The formative assessment will be carried out by administering a multiple choice questionnaire at the end of the course. The questions will focus on the entire program. All the material used during the lessons will be provided to the students on time. The questionnaire will be delivered on a digital platform. Each question will have a variable score between 1 and 2. The maximum score is 31, corresponding to 30 cum laude, i.e. excellent. The grades, will based on judgements. The judgment will finallu be uploaded to the Esse3 system.

Texts

All the slides presented during the entire course will be provided to the students; they are considered adequate for approaching the final exam. However, it is suggested the book entitled "Principles of Forensic Toxicology" edited by Barry Levine (AACCPress)

The course program is divided into different parts: a) A first part will be dedicated to the description of the role of the forensic toxicologist, the technical/scientific consultant and the expert witness role. The lessons will focus on the main areas of interest that require the support of this professional figure; b) The second part will be entirely dedicated to the legislation of the most widespread psychotropic substances , their major chemical-physical characteristics, their effects on the human body, as well as other information regarding their kinetics, dynamics and metabolism. Among these, a specific focus to the italian tables of drugs of abuse, accordingly to the most recent national legislation, will be part of the course. Further, the study of ethyl alcohol and its main markers of consumption/abuse will represent a key issue that will be largely discussed; c) The third part will focus exclusively on all the pre-analytical and analytical aspects of detection/quantiative determination of substances of forensic toxicological interest. In particular, liquid/liquid and ad SPE clean-up procedures will be detailed, the difference between biological matrices analyzed (in particular blood, urine and hair) will be described, methods of analysis in chromatography, both gas and liquid, coupled to mass spectrometry, will be illustrated. d) The last part will concern interactive lessons between students and lecturer; data concerning real cases will be provided, after anonimization, and students will be asked to reply to specific questions, both analytical and interpretative.