thank you for this link, smoothlugar.
going by sprocket's notes from prelim hearings i thought there must have been a typo in an exhibit displayed in court which confused ruffalo. but now that i've seen the actual transcripts i realize it was the lidocaine concentration in stomach what caused the confusion.
as you say, the lidocaine concentration in stomach was indeed high, much higher than lidocaine blood concentrations (up to 45 times higher). but the same was not true for propofol. propofol concentration found in stomach was LOWER than propofol concentrations in blood samples and liver.
here are the amounts for lidocaine and propofol in stomach:
-- lidocaine --
total lidocaine amount in stomach:
1.6 mg found in 70g of gastric fluid
> lidocaine gastric concentration:
22.857 ug/g
(divide with 70 to get ratio and multiply with 1000 to convert from mg to ug)
compare this to lidocaine blood concentrations: heart bl 0.68 ug/ml, hospital bl 0.51 ug/ml, femoral bl 0.84 ug/ml.
lidocaine gastric concentration was ~34 of heart bl, ~45 of hospital bl, ~27 of femoral bl concentrations.
the total amount of lidocaine found in stomach was still small though. compare the amount of 1.6 mg lidocaine found in stomach to the amount of lidocaine in a vial:
lidocaine vials usually have 0.5-4% concentrations which means one vial of 30ml would contain at least 150mg lidocaine. the amount found in stomach is at the most ~1% of the amount in a 30ml lidocaine vial.
for lidocaine available dosages s.:
http://www.drugs.com/pro/lidocaine.html
http://mohawkmedical.com/node/1358386
http://www.apppharma.com/our-products/preservative-free/product-161.html
-- propofol --
the propofol concentration found in stomach was much lower than the lidocaine concentration:
total propofol amount in stomach:
0.13 mg in 70g of gastric fluid
> propofol gastric concentration:
1.857 ug/g
propofol blood concentrations were: heart bl 3.2 ug/ml, hospital bl 4.1 ug/ml, femoral bl 2.6 ug/ml.
which means
propofol gastric concentration was less than concentrations found in blood samples: ~0.59 of heart bl, ~0.46 of hospital bl, ~0.73 of femoral bl concentrations.
i think the propofol could have gone there because of a "transmural" bleeding of the stomach:
the high lidocaine concentration in stomach was only shorty addressed at prelim by rogers. rogers suggested it could have been used for resuscitation attempts (lidocaine can be used for resuscitation similar to epinephrine), but UCLA drs didnt say they used it.
rogers also pointed out that the total amount of lidocaine found in stomach was small.
i googled and found out lidocaine spray can be used at intubation gear, maybe paramedics had their gear prepared with lidocaine? doesnt really make sense in an unconscious patient, but maybe gear can be prepared with it as a standard?
(s.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/v7362016jk09v3w5/)
another idea: at scene was also found lidocaine cream. maybe mj had used the cream and it came in touch with his lips?
as to what happened during ruffalo's testimony:
for his calculations (which ruffalo did over the noon-break) ruffalo mixed up mg (milligram) with ug (microgram) and came up with extremely tiny lidocaine and propofol concentrations in stomach. he was asked what these figures mean and his theory was these tiny amounts would be due to redistribution after death (substances can spread to other sites within the body after death).
when flanagan pointed out to him he had to multiply these figures by 1000 ruffalo got totally lost because his theory of redistribution didnt add up any more.
flanagan then very shrewdly focused on the lidocaine amount pointing out the lidocaine concentration was much higher in stomach than in blood samples. he claimed these amounts indicate ingestion and ruffalo sort of agreed.
flanagan then swiftly switched from lidocaine to propofol, implying if lidocaine concentration was high and (in his opinion) had been ingested then propofol concentration must have been high as well and had been ingested too. and ruffalo fell for it.. at that point he was so confused he didn't even realize the propofol concentration in stomach was much smaller than the lidocaine concentration and he didnt point out what mattered:
the amount was lower than propofol blood concentrations
as i said above, i think the most likely reason why propofol was found in stomach is the "transmural hemorrhage of stomach" mentioned in the autopsy report.
ruffalo could have pointed this out as a plausible reason for the amount of propofol found in stomach. instead he allowed flanagan to go down the "mj the addict who needed his fix and was ingesting propofol" route....