Cyanide in blood by gas chromatography with NP detector and acetonitrile as internal standard. Application on air accident fire victims.

An improved gas chromatographic method for HCN in blood with acetonitrile as an internal standard has been developed. The necessity to test for cyanide on samples from air accident fire victims is discussed in view of the fact that carbon monoxide measurements usually do not correlate with cyanide findings. Nine cases (out of 67), with blood CO saturation of less than 20% and cyanide concentration over 2 mg/L, are described.