Online Resource 1. Data items extracted from the selected studies involving toxicological analyses (N = 46)
First author/s (year of publication) / Country / Study type (number of participants) / Transported drug/s / Toxicological analysesWetli and Mittlemann (1981) [1] / US / Case series (N = 11) / Cocaine / In vivo and post-mortem blood concentration
Joynt and Mikhael (1985) [2] / Canada / Case report (N = 1) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood, liver, and bile concentration
Amon et al. (1986) [3] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Winek et al. (1987) [4] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo blood concentration
Gherardi et al. (1988) [5] / France / Retrospective (N = 120) / 68 Heroin/52 Cocaine / In vivo urine concentration
Introna and Smialek (1989) [6] / US / Case series (N = 7) / 5 Cocaine/2 Heroin / Post-mortem blood and stomach concentration
Watson et al. (1991) [7] / UK / Case report (N = 1) / Amphetamine / In vivo blood concentration
Nichols and Davis (1992) [8] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
John et al. (1992) [9] / Switzerland / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo urine concentration
Meatherall and Warren (1993) [10] / Canada / Case report (N = 1) / Hashish oil / In vivo urine concentration
Malbrain et al. (1994) [11] / Belgium / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo blood and urine concentration
Patel (1996) [12] / UK / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Wetli et al. (1997) [13] / US / Case series (N = 10) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood concentration
Heinemann et al. (1998) [14] / Germany / Case series (N = 4) / 2 Cocaine/1 Heroin/
1 Amphetamine / Post-mortem blood, urine, liver, kidney, stomach, and brain concentration
Nihira et al. (1998) [15] / Japan / Case series (N = 9) / 5 Cocaine/2 Heroin/1 Opium/
1 Marijuana / In vivo urine concentration
Farah and Ghayad (1999) [16] / Lebanon / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo blood and urine concentration
Yanai and Hiss (1999) [17] / Israel / Case series (N = 2) / Cocaine / In vivo blood concentration
Hutchins et al. (2000) [18] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood and stomach concentration
Klein et al. (2000) [19] / Israel / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Stichenwirth et al. (2000) [20] / Austria / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood and brain concentration
Fineschi et al. (2002) [21] / Italy / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood, urine, and brain concentration
Furnari et al. (2002) [22] / Italy / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood, urine, bile, and brain concentration
Gill and Graham (2002) [23] / US / Retrospective (N = 50) / 42 Heroin/4 Cocaine/
4 Heroin + Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Fucci (2004) [24] / Italy / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood, urine, and gastric concentration
Kashani and Ruha (2004) [25] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Methamphetamine / In vivo blood concentration
Havis et al. (2005) [26] / UK / Retrospective (N = 16) / Cocaine/Amphetamine/Cannabis / Post-mortem blood concentration
Koehler et al. (2005) [27] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Sein Anand et al. (2005) [28] / Poland / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo urine concentration
Cordero et al. (2006) [29] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Sribanditmongkol et al. (2006) [30] / Thailand / Retrospective (N =2) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood concentration
Takekawa et al. (2007) [31] / Japan / Case report (N = 1) / Methamphetamine / Post-mortem blood, urine, liver, and gastric concentration
Marchei et al. (2008) [32] / Italy / Case series (N = 64) / 63 Cocaine/1 Heroin / In vivo urine concentration
Modelli et al. (2008) [33] / Brazil / Retrospective (N = 27) / 20 Marijuana/4 Antipsychotics/
3 Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Dinis-Oliveira et al. (2009) [34] / Portugal / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo and post-mortem blood concentration
Li et al. (2009) [35] / China / Case report (N = 1) / Methamphetamine / Post-mortem blood, urine, liver, and gastric concentration
Barbera et al. (2010) [36] / Italy / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood, urine, bile, and brain concentration
De Prost et al. (2010) [37] / France / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Njau et al. (2010) [38] / Greece / Case report (N = 1) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood concentration
Hantson et al. (2011) [39] / Belgium / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo blood and urine concentration
Spadari et al. (2011) [40] / France / Case series (N = 2) / Cannabis / In vivo blood and urine concentration
Wilcher (2011) [41] / Australia / Case series (N = 5) / 3 Heroin/1 Cocaine/
1 Methadone + BDZ / Post-mortem blood concentration
Bin Abdul Rashid et al. (2013) [42] / Malaysia / Case report (N = 1) / Methamphetamine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Uekusa et al. (2013) [43] / Japan / Case series (N = 3) / Methamphetamine / In vivo blood and urine concentration
Hantson et al. (2014) [44] / Belgium / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / In vivo urine concentration
Kumral et al. (2014) [45] / Turkey / Case report (N = 1) / Heroin / Post-mortem blood concentration
Shields et al. (2015) [46] / US / Case report (N = 1) / Cocaine / Post-mortem blood concentration
Abbreviations: BDZ = benzodiazepines.
References
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24) Fucci N (2004) Phenacetin and cocaine in a body packer. Forensic Sci Int 141(1):59-61.
25) Kashani J, Ruha AM (2004) Methamphetamine toxicity secondary to intravaginal body stuffing. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol 42(7):987-989.
26) Havis S, Best D, Carter J (2005) Concealment of drugs by police detainees: lessons learned from adverse incidents and from 'routine' clinical practice. J Clin Forensic Med 12(5):237-241.
27) Koehler SA, Ladham S, Rozin L, Shakir A, Omalu B, Dominick J, Wecht CH (2005) The risk of body packing: a case of a fatal cocaine overdose. Forensic Sci Int 151(1):81-84.
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31) Takekawa K, Ohmori T, Kido A, Oya M (2007) Methamphetamine body packer: acute poisoning death due to massive leaking of methamphetamine. J Forensic Sci 52(5):1219-1222.
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38) Njau SN, Raikos N, Spagou K, Tzikas A, Tsoukali H (2010) Heroin body packer’s death in Greece. Open Forensic Sci J 3:53-56.
39) Hantson P, Capron A, Wallemacq P (2011) Toxicokinetics of cocaine and metabolites in a body-packer becoming symptomatic. J Forensic Leg Med 18(8):385-387.
40) Spadari M, Canioni D, Gregoire E, Drouet G, Bourdon JH, Arditti J, Micallef J (2011) Cannabis body packing: two case reports. Clin Toxicol (Phila) 49(9):862-864.
41) Wilcher G (2011) Drug-related deaths with evidence of intracorporeal drug concealment at autopsy: five case reports. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 32(4):314-318.
42) Bin Abdul Rashid SN, Rahim AS, Thali MJ, Flach PM (2013) Death by 'ice': fatal methamphetamine intoxication of a body packer case detected by postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) and validated by autopsy. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 9(1):82-87.
43) Uekusa K, Hayashida M, Saito N, Mashiko K, Hara K, Waters B, Ohno Y (2013) Methamphetamine and amphetamine concentrations in survivors of body-packer syndrome in Japan. Forensic Sci Int 227(1-3):45-47.
44) Hantson P, Capron A, Maillart JF (2014) Oesophageal and gastric obstruction in a cocaine body packer. J Forensic Leg Med 27:62-64.
45) Kumral B, Büyük Y, Yeşiloğlu F, Özkan OL (2014) A fatal case of heroin body packing in Turkey. Forensic Toxicol 30:199-201.
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