SOFT 2004 Meeting Abstracts - Society of Forensic Toxicologists

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DIAGNOSIS OF CHRONIC ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION. HAIR ANALYSIS FOR ETHYL­
GLUCURONIDE
C. Jurado·, T. Soriano, M.P. Gimenez, M. Menendez :Instituto Nacional de Toxicologfa. P.O. Box 863.
41080 Sevilla. Spain
Alcohol abuse is one ofthe most serious social problems throughout the world. Ethyl-glucuronide is minor
metabolite of ethanol and has proved to be a good alcohol marker. In addition, hair analysis has
demonstrated its usefulness in establishing chronic consumption of drugs of abuse. The objective of the
present study is to develop and validate a sensitive, precise and specific analytical method for the
determination of ethyl-glucuronide in hair samples.
During method development the efficacy of extraction of EtG from hair was compared in four extraction
methods: a) methanol; b) methanol:water (1:1); c) water; and d) water:trifluoroacetic acid (9:1). Water was
found to be the best extracting solvent, since it provided the highest recoveries, with cleaner extracts. The
final method is as follows: about 100 mg of hair are sequential\y washed with water and acetone. The
decontaminated sample is finely cut with scissors, then the deuterated internal standard (EtG-d 5 ) and 2 mL
of water are added. After sonication for two hours, the sample is maintained at room temperature overnight
Derivatization is performed with PFPA. Derivatives are injected into a GCIMS system in the electronic
impact mode. The method shows linearity over the range of concentrations from 0.050 ng/mg to 5 ng/mg.
Detection and quantification limits are 0.025 ng/mg and 0.050 ng/mg, respectively. Mean recoveries for the
three studied concentrations (low, medium and high) are higher than 87%. The coefficients of variation in
intra- and inter-assay precision are always lower than 7%. The method is being routinely applied in our lab
for the diagnosis of chronic alcohol consumption. Some examples will be shown. All of them derived from
divorce proceedings where chronic alcohol consumption was required by the Court. EtG concentrations
ranged from 0.05 to 0.75 ng/mg of hair.
Keywords: Ethyl-glucuronide, Alcohol Markers, Hair Analysis
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