Citation

Loos U, Heifer U. Blutalkohol 1979; 16(5): 321-339.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In a drinking experiment, in which 15 students consumed 1 g ethanol per kg in 55 minutes, the time courses of alcohol concentrations in breath and blood and of some alcohol influenced central nervous functions (post-rotational) fixation-nystagmus and sensory-motor performance test were observed. In the elimination phase the blood/breath concentration ratio is 2540 (plus or minus) 200 for expired breath (mean and S.D. with 7 persons) and 2164 (plus or minus) 170 for end-expiratory breath (8 persons). The infrared photometer was used to determine breath-alcohol concentrations. It is adequately accurate during the elimination phase: the standard error of the blood alcohol concentration estimate from the breath is 9.2 mg ethanol per 100 ml blood. During the evasion phase the alcohol concentration in venous blood is higher than in arterial pulmonary blood and vice versa in the invasion phase. The equilibrium is reached when the venous blood alcohol concentration is maximal. In the resorption phase the breath alcohol concentration is a slightly better indicator of alcoholic impairment than venous blood alcohol concentration. Nevertheless, it does not describe sufficiently the higher alcohol effect in this phase. In our drinking experiment the major impairment of measured functions appeared significantly before the maximal alcohol concentrations in breath and blood were reached. Therefore the arterio-venous difference of alcohol concentration is not sufficient to explain the higher alcohol effect during the resorption phase. The rate in which the alcohol concentration rises is also responsible for the greater influence in this phase.

DWI