Postmortem redistribution of morphine and its metabolites

The postmortem redistribution of morphine, morphine-3-glucuronide, morphine -6-glucuronide and total morphine was assessed in 40 heroin-related deaths. In blood taken from subclavian, heart, and femoral regions, concentrations of morphine and its metabolites were similar. While there was a trend for higher concentrations in heart blood, when compared with femoral or subclav ian blood, this was not significant. There was also no significant differen ce in concentrations between admission and autopsy blood in which the postm ortem interval was on average 59 h. From our observations, significant post mortem redistribution of morphine and its metabolites seems unlikely.