Alcohol abuse and misuse is a growing problem with relevant clinical, social, economic, and administrative implications. Epidemiological studies commonly report increases in the percentage of alcohol users and in the amount of alcohol consumed per capita as well as decreases in the age of first use [1] and [2]. Effective strategies are needed to hamper the increasing diffusion of risky drinking behaviors, and the availability of adequate diagnostic tests is essential to the implementation of such strategies. In the attempt to push forward the specificity and sensitivity limits of the tests currently available, based on ethanol determination in biological fluids for detecting recent alcohol consumption and on the measurement of indirect biomarkers of chronic heavy drinking (e.g., aminotransferases, γ-glutamyltransferase, mean corpuscular volume of erythrocytes, carbohydrate-deficient transferrin [CDT]),2 analytical toxicologists have focused their attention on new fields of investigation. Among these, the determination of minor nonoxidative products of alcohol metabolism, namely ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS), and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs), in traditional biological matrices (e.g., blood and derivatives, urine) as well as alternative ones (e.g., hair, meconium), appears to be very promising. This article reviews bioanalytical procedures for the determination of conjugates or fatty acid esters of ethanol as markers of ethanol consumption. In addition, forensic and clinic toxicological applications of these procedures are presented and discussed.
Bioanalytical procedures for the determination of conjugates or fatty acid esters of ethanol as markers of ethanol consumption. A review.
POLETTINI, ALDO ELIANO
2007-01-01
Abstract
Alcohol abuse and misuse is a growing problem with relevant clinical, social, economic, and administrative implications. Epidemiological studies commonly report increases in the percentage of alcohol users and in the amount of alcohol consumed per capita as well as decreases in the age of first use [1] and [2]. Effective strategies are needed to hamper the increasing diffusion of risky drinking behaviors, and the availability of adequate diagnostic tests is essential to the implementation of such strategies. In the attempt to push forward the specificity and sensitivity limits of the tests currently available, based on ethanol determination in biological fluids for detecting recent alcohol consumption and on the measurement of indirect biomarkers of chronic heavy drinking (e.g., aminotransferases, γ-glutamyltransferase, mean corpuscular volume of erythrocytes, carbohydrate-deficient transferrin [CDT]),2 analytical toxicologists have focused their attention on new fields of investigation. Among these, the determination of minor nonoxidative products of alcohol metabolism, namely ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS), and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs), in traditional biological matrices (e.g., blood and derivatives, urine) as well as alternative ones (e.g., hair, meconium), appears to be very promising. This article reviews bioanalytical procedures for the determination of conjugates or fatty acid esters of ethanol as markers of ethanol consumption. In addition, forensic and clinic toxicological applications of these procedures are presented and discussed.
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