Citation

Almeida-González M, Henríquez-Hernández LA, Luzardo OP, Zumbado M, Zaragoza E, Meilán MJ, Camacho M, Boada LD. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2017; 52: 40-45.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Toxicology, Institute of Legal Medicine, Government of the Canary Islands, Spain; Toxicology Unit, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Paseo Blas Cabrera Felipe s/n, 35016 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Electronic address: luis.boada@ulpgc.es.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2017.08.015

PMID

28858689

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the presence of alcohol in individuals (137) that were subjected to a mandatory medico-legal autopsy in the Institute of Legal Medicine of Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain) during 2015. Blood and vitreous humor samples (232) were analyzed by gas chromatography. 46.0% of the individuals were positive for alcohol, being half of them tourists. Blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) was higher in men over 60 years (p = 0.041). 10.2% of the series died in a traffic accident, and victims had the highest proportion of positives to alcohol (64.3%) and the highest BAC (2.56 g/L, p = 0.048). The BAC:VHAC (alcohol in vitreous humor) ratio was higher among victims of traffic crashes (p = 0.036), suggesting a short elapsed interval between the alcohol intake and the fatal accident. The results of this study indicate that ethanol is still heavily involved in non-natural deaths.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Blood alcohol concentration; Canary islands; Forensic sciences; Tourist region; Traffic accidents; Vitreous humor alcohol concentration