Citation

Haffner HT, Banger M, Graw M, Besserer K. Blutalkohol 1997; 34(4): 270-275.

Affiliation

Institut fur Rechtsmedizin, GHS/Universitat Essen, 45122 Essen, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The serum methanol concentrations were observed in 14 alcoholics over a period of 1.5 to 5 hours during detoxification phase. Their blood ethanol levels were >0.3 g/kg. Concentrations changes between +0.14 mg/kg/h and -0.95 mg/kg/h were shown. There was a highly significant negative correlation (r = -0.905; p less than 0.0001) between the methanol level and its average hourly change in concentration. A regression equation was determined (y = 0.195 [mg/kg/h] -0.021 [h-1] x) and it shows an axis intercept a which corresponds to the magnitude of endogenous methanol production in non alcoholics. It intersects the x axis at around 10 mg/kg, at which point the steady state between the endogenous methanol production and methanol excretion would also be expected in non alcoholics. It can be deduced from this that no substantial methanol oxidation took place during the observation period. Furthermore the regression equation shows that, depending on the methanol level, concentration drops of around 1.0 mg/kg/h can easily be justified by methanol excretion.