Clinical Chemistry Link to Randox Laboratories Web Site
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Clinical Chemistry 39: 2288-2292, 1993;
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit an electronic Letter to
the Editor about this paper
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rainey, P. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rainey, P. M.

Clinical Chemistry, Vol 39, 2288-2292, Copyright © 1993 by American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Relation between serum and whole-blood ethanol concentrations

PM Rainey
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510.

An algorithm is suggested for interpretation of serum ethanol concentrations under legal statutes that specify whole-blood alcohol concentrations. The algorithm uses the distribution of individual serum:whole-blood alcohol concentration ratios to allow calculations at various levels of confidence that can be related to legal standards of evidence. Serum:whole-blood alcohol concentration ratios were determined for 211 patients. The ratios ranged from 0.88 to 1.59 (median 1.15). The distribution of ratios was positively skewed, but the logarithms of the ratios were normally distributed. This allowed the parametric calculation of a range of ratios of 0.90-1.49 for the central 99% of the population and a range of 0.95-1.40 for the central 95%. The serum:whole-blood alcohol concentration ratio was independent of both the serum alcohol concentration (R2 = 0.005) and the hematocrit (R2 = 0.03).




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1993 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.