Identification and quantitation of a new cathinone designer drug PV9 in an “aroma liquid” product, antemortem whole blood and urine specimens, and a postmortem whole blood specimen in a fatal poisoning case

A couple bought “aroma liquid” and “bath salt” type drugs at a dubious drug shop. Both of them orally took the liquid type drug; although the male subject showed no symptoms, the female subject suffered shivering, convulsions, and low levels of consciousness. The woman was taken to an emergency hospital to receive intensive medical treatment, but died about 20 h after admission. The aroma liquid solution, and the antemortem blood and urine collected during medical treatment at the hospital were brought to our laboratory by the police for analysis of the causative drug(s). In addition, a sample of postmortem femoral vein blood was collected from the cadaver. After some screening tests, we finally identified PV9 (α-POP) in all specimens by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS–MS). The concentration of PV9 was 18.3 mg/ml in the aroma liquid solution, 45.7 ng/ml in the antemortem blood, 20.3 ng/ml in the antemortem urine, and 180 ng/ml in the postmortem femoral vein blood. The concentrations in antemortem blood and urine and in postmortem blood were greatly lowered by dilution during the intensive medical treatment, including intravenous drip infusion of a large volume of solution. The probable coexistence of a β-hydroxyl metabolite was also investigated by mass chromatography and analysis of fragment ions of the product ion spectrum obtained by LC–MS–MS. To our knowledge, this is the first reported identification and quantitation of PV9 in human specimens in a fatal PV9 poisoning case.