Ethyl Glucuronide in Human Hair

Abstract

Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is considered to be a promising candidate marker of alcohol consumption, but exhibits a short window of detection in blood or urine. Keratinized tissues are known to retain foreign substances and to provide a greater retrospective window of detection than body fluids. Therefore, post-mortem hair, skin swabs, and stratum corneum samples were collected from four subjects with a reported history of alcohol misuse and from seven subjects with a report of regular, socially accepted drinking behaviour, and were investigated for EtG. Additionally, certain specimens were collected from three children, who had not yet consumed any alcoholic beverages. EtG was detectable in most of the hair and stratum corneum samples as well as in perspiration stains from alcohol-consuming subjects. The results indicated that EtG might be formed locally in very small and highly variable amounts. The most important finding was that EtG cannot be expected to be generally detectable in keratinized tissues or perspiration stains from alcohol-drinking subjects, whereas a positive result is always associated with recent alcohol consumption.

Confirmatory analysis of ethylglucuronide in urine by liquid-chromatography/electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry according to forensic guidelines

“…In analyzing more than 1000 urine samples from clinical and forensic cases, we have found that LC-MS/MS has advantages over GC-MS analysis [16,31,32] because of higher sample throughput by shorter analysis time (10 min per run instead of approximately 20 min), no need for derivatization as in GC-MS, and less contamination of the chromatographic system.…”

Hair Analysis Versus Conventional Methods of Drug Testing in Substance Abusers Seeking Organ Transplantation

“…Stigma and fear of delay or exclusion from the transplant process may lead patients to deny use or attempt to falsify toxicology screens (1) (17). In the addictions field, the goal of a long-term marker for alcohol consumption has been realized through analysis of EtG in hair, with heavy drinkers differentiated from nondrinkers and light drinkers (18,19 (23) …”

The fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) hair test: emerging technology for the diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)

“…EtG is minor metobolite of alcohol metabolism produced when alcohol is glucoronidated with activated glucoronic acid (UDP-GA) [64]. Several studies have investigated the measurement of EtG in hair [33,[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]. Hair analysis of EtG has been shown to be highly specific (100%) in the detection of heavy alcohol users, however there have been variable reports with regards to the test's sensitivity, ranging between 50 and 100%.…”

“…Hair analysis of EtG has been shown to be highly specific (100%) in the detection of heavy alcohol users, however there have been variable reports with regards to the test's sensitivity, ranging between 50 and 100%. This variation is likely due to the large range of analytical limits of detection (LOD) reported between laboratorie [64][65][66][67][68] hermore, a previous study showed that in a cohort of heavy drinkers both FAEE and EtG hair tests were able to identify all alcoholic patients, therefore, the tests acted redundantly [68]. Consequently, it remains possible that the use of both tests may have added value for the detection of pregnant alcohol abusers; however, more research is required to determine the cost versus the benefits.…”