Affiliation:
1. Forensic Toxicologist of the City and County of San Francisco and Department of Laboratory Medicine of the School of Medicine of The University of California, San Francisco.
Abstract
Ethanol analysis is probably the most common procedure performed in forensic and analytical toxicology laboratories worldwide. Ethanol poisoning is very important in both clinical and forensic investigations. In clinical evaluations, measuring the ethanol concentration is necessary for the timely and appropriate delivery of care to patients who may experience discomfort or life threatening ethanolic overdose or mixed ethanol-drug intoxication. In forensic toxicology investigations, ethanol is routinely measured in both human performance forensic toxicology cases such as drug-facilitated crimes and driving-under-the-influence cases, as well as in postmortem forensic toxicology cases. This review presents information regarding the most commonly analyzed biological specimens used in alcohol analysis including, among others, blood, breath, urine, oral fluid, and vitreous humor. Additionally, it presents the various chemical, biochemical, gas chromatographic, and breath testing techniques commonly employed in ethanol analysis and considers the main advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally, a brief discussion of quality assurance in alcohol analysis is presented.
Subject
Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Cited by
3 articles.
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