DEATH AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CARDIORESPIRATORY ARREST CAUSED BY COCAINE-INDUCED GENERALIZED SEIZURE: TOXICOLOGICAL DATA IN A CASE REPORT

onsumption of cocaine can induce seizures, typically in the form of generalized tonic-clonic convulsions, that resolve spontaneously without neurological disease. In a minority of cases, cocaine-induced seizures can lead to death. In the literature, data concerning cocaine concentrations that can induce seizures are extremely scarce, and, to our knowledge, there are no studies reporting concentrations of cocaine and its metabolites in organs in cases of death resulting from cardio-respiratory arrest during epileptic seizures induced by cocaine. We present the case of a 26-year-old subject who died as a consequence of cardiorespiratory arrest induced by a generalized epileptic seizure, which occurred approximately 12 h after nasal cocaine intake. Toxicological analysis of samples collected during autopsy, performed 3 days after his death, revealed a concentration of 30.43 ng/mL of cocaine and 222.44 ng/mL of benzoylecgonine in the blood, less than the amount in which an overdose occurs, and 487.90 ng/mL of cocaine and 16285.28 ng/mL of benzoylecgonine in urinary samples, that allowed us to affirm that the subject at the time of development of the crisis had already metabolized a quantity of the drug