Abstract
The rate of ethanol elimination was studied in two groups of men by means of an Alcotest 7010 breath analyser. The experimental group consisted of 15 skid-row alcoholics undergoing detoxification. Their median daily ethanol consumption was 211 (range 26-476) g pure ethanol during the last year. The control group was made up of 12 age-matched healthy social drinkers consuming 9 (range 4-23) g day-1 pure ethanol during the last year. The median ethanol elimination-rate in the elimination phase was 0.25 (range 0.13-0.31) g l-1 h_1 during the detoxification period in the experimental group. This value was approximately 70% higher than in the control group (0.14 (0.12-0.17) g P1 h_1). Some correlation was found between reported ethanol intake, and the calculated ethanol elimination-rate, as well as gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT), alanine amino transferase (ALAT), aspartate amino transferase (ASAT), glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and HDL-cholesterol. Of these measures, ethanol elimination-rate showed highest sensitivity and efficiency for detection of ethanol consumption above the limit of 50 g per day.