Assessment of recent alcohol consumption by detecting ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulphate level among traffic accident patients

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to explain whether EtG and EtS, which are two non-oxidative ethanol metabolites secreted by the liver and used as markers of alcohol intake related to an incident, were also present in whole blood samples of patients with traffic accident injuries.

Methods: EtG and EtS concentrations in all of the whole blood samples were sent to the Forensic Medicine Department of Cukurova University for testing Blood Alcohol Concentrations (BAC) via validated liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer method.

Results: The scope of the study covers 200 patients that were admitted to medical services within 12 h following the incident. Of all patients 16.5% were found to be BAC positive, while 35.5 and 23.5 were positive for EtG and EtS, respectively. All samples with a positive BAC result were also positive for EtG and EtS.

Conclusion: Detection of EtG and EtS, minor metabolites along with ethanol in the blood can serve as an objective tool to provide further analysis regarding alcohol-related traffic accidents at emergency services.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• traffic accident
• EtG
• EtS
• biomarkers
• public health

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Cukurova University Scientific Research Projects Funding (Project Number: TYL-2017-7685).