Citation

Corry JEL. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1981; 1981: 600-613.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A method and its practical application to obtain breath samples of deep lung air from unconscious subjects is described. A face mask attached to a valve chamber and collection bag was designed to meet the requirements arising from the physiological exchange processes in rebreathed air. Practical tests in the laboratory revealed excellent agreement between the values obtained by direct measurements of the breath alcohol by means of the Adrian-IR-spectrophotometer and those from stored samples. The application of the method described is of particular importance to unconscious patients suspected of heavy alcohol intoxication. It has been proven to be an essential aid to the diagnosis since it allows instantaneous determination of the BAC-level and the initiation of countermeasures if required. This is demonstrated by examples taken at the alcohol emergency clinic in Mainz on the carneval "rosenmontag". (TRRL)