Project management
Prof. Wolfgang Weinmann, Forensic Toxicology and Chemistry, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern
Project participants
Prof. Wolfgang Weinmann, Forensic Toxicology and Chemistry, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern
Alexandra Schröck, Forensic Toxicology and Chemistry, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern
Dr. med. Matthias Pfäffli, Traffic medicine - psychiatry and -psychology, Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Bern
Prof. Dr. Annette Thierauf-Emberger, Institute of Forensic Medicine Freiburg, Deutschland
Project data
Funding insitution: Swiss Foundation for Alcohol Research (Request 254)
Funding period: 10.2014 - 10.2015
Subsidy: CHF 70'000.-
Abstract
As harmful drinking is a main problem in contemporary society – especially in road traffic safety – alcohol biomarkers detectable in body fluids can give information about risky drinking habits and alcohol abuse. Therefore, biomarkers are for example used for the medical evaluation of the driving aptitude after drunken driving and withdrawal of the driving license.
A new biomarker in this field is the phospholipid phosphatidylethanol (PEth). It is already detectable after single consumption of about 50 g ethanol – which we could show recently in a preliminary pilot study. An LC-MS/MS method has been developed, which allows the detection and quantification of several PEth homologues at concentrations down to 10 ng/mL, and which has the potential for being used in clinical laboratories on a large scale. Correlations found for PEth and for other biomarkers are promising. As PEth has an elimination half time of four to ten days in blood, it is possible to detect regular risky drinking behavior, as well as alcohol abuse, also when - due to fast elimination - low or no blood alcohol concentrations are found. Furthermore, dried blood spots can be used for analysis of PEth, but need to be evaluated for capillary blood by method comparison.
