Citation

Almeida-González M, Luzardo OP, Boada LD, Zaragoza E, Meilán MJ, Zumbado M, Henríquez-Hernández LA. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2019; 68: e101868.

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.henriquez@ulpgc.es.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2019.101868

PMID

31585334

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of ethanol in individuals (277) subjected to a mandatory medico-legal autopsy in the Institute of Legal Medicine of Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain) during 2016-2017, comparing the results with data published in 2015. Blood and/or vitreous humor samples were analyzed by gas chromatography. 31.8% of the individuals were positive to ethanol. We observed a decrease in the prevalence of ethanol among males (p = 0.002). While the prevalence of ethanol was reduced, the concentration among those positive subjects has increased. 11.9% of the series died in a traffic accident and the percentage of positive to ethanol decreased in relation to 2015 (64.3, 25.0, and 35.3%). The number of suicides remains constant, although the age of the suiciders has been significantly reduced (p = 0.022). The results of this study indicate that ethanol is still heavily involved in non-natural deaths.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

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