Citation

Falkensson M, Jones W, Sörbo B. Clin. Chem. 1989; 35(6): 918-921.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical Chemistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University Hospital, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, American Association for Clinical Chemistry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2731363

Abstract

We describe a novel mouth-cup device for sampling breath from unconscious subjects and analysis with a hand-held breath-alcohol instrument, the "Alcolmeter SD-2." This equipment was evaluated in healthy volunteers after they drank a moderate dose of alcohol. Three kinds of breath were analyzed: (a) end-expired air from a conventional mouth-tube, (b) breath sampled from the mouth-cup, and (c) air from a nasal tube supplied with the breath analyzer. The ethanol concentration in breath from the mouth-cup was slightly less than in end-expired air but significantly greater than in nasal air.

RESULTS with mouth-tube and mouth-cup correlated highly with blood-ethanol concentration as determined by gas chromatography; nasal-tube air correlated less well. The Alcolmeter responded not only to ethanol but also to methanol, 1-propanol, and 2-propanol, whereas ethylene glycol gave no response. The time-response curve for methanol was different, and this might permit differential diagnosis of methanol poisoning.

Language: en