Citation

Phillips M, Greenberg J, Martinez V. Alcohol 1988; 5(3): 263-265.

Affiliation

Department of Medicine, St. Vincent's Medical Center of Richmond, Staten Island, NY 10310.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3415770

Abstract

A highly sensitive gas chromatographic breath assay was used to measure the concentration of endogenous ethanol in the breath of fasting volunteers who had consumed no alcoholic beverages. Normal subjects (n = 15) were studied, as well as withdrawn hospitalized alcohol abusers (n = 13) who had abstained from ethanol for at least two weeks. The mean breath ethanol concentrations were 1.88 nmol/l (SD = 1.06) in the normal subjects and 17.84 nmol/l (SD = 8.81) in the abstinent alcohol abusers. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p less than 0.001) and could have arisen either from ingestion of exogenous ethanol (from sources such as tobacco smoke) or from metabolic differences between the two groups.

Language: en