Comparison of Breath and Blood Alcohol Concentrations in a Controlled Drinking Study

In the research of influence of alcohol on the mental and physical state of the body alcohol concentration in the blood plays an important role which must be properly defined. Therefore, the aim of our study was to examine breath and blood alcohol concentration in ten young, healthy, non-smoker male volunteers after consuming a red wine, containing 13 vol % of alcohol. Red wine (3 ml/kg) was consumed in the morning, after an overnight fast. Breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) were determined before (baseline) and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 240 min after beverage consumption. BAC was determined by headspace gas chromatography and BrAC was determined with Alcotest Dräger 6810 instrument. The concentration time profiles of alcohol in blood and breath following wine intake, poorly matched. Results show that the averages BrAC are significantly higher than average BAC in 15 min, 30 min and 45 min after beverage consumption. One hour after beverage consumption there were not statistically significant difference between BrAC and BAC measures. These results indicate that factual blood alcohol concentration and related expert toxicological decision based solely on the results obtained from breath analyzer might not be correct. Central Sutlovic et al. (2015) Email: J Subst Abuse Alcohol 3(2): 1029 (2015) 2/5 investigations have been carried out with regard to the BAC/ BrAC ratios [16]. Furthermore, there are many conditions that may influence BrAC to BAC conversion. For example, lower hematocrite level may influence BrAC resulting in the error range from -2 to +5%. An elevation in body temperature of 1°C results in 7% higher BrAC level. Physical activity and hyperventilation decrease BrAC levels up to 25%. Lower atmospheric temperature changes the levels of water that condenses in expired air and can also give falsely lower BrAC [1,2,18,19]. Kovacic et al. shown that BrAC and BAC calculated to the time of breath alcotest, were not within 95% predicament range in 30 out of 570 individuals (5.3%) [19]. Also, limited information exists on the alcohol kinetics when analyzed from series of blood and breath samples [13]. Therefore, in the present study we determined and compared breath and blood alcohol concentrations in the series of blood and breath samples, after consumption of red wine, following an overnight fast. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Split, School of Medicine. All subjects signed a written consent prior to their participation in the study. Ten healthy male volunteers, aged 20 to 35 years (mean body mass index of 24.2±1.8 kg/m2) were normolipidemic, nonsmokers, taking no medications and had no history of alcohol abuse. Subjects were asked to abstain from exercise, fruits, vegetables, dietary supplements, tea, alcoholic beverages and caffeineor theobromine-containing foods for 24 h before experiment. After an overnight fast, the subjects consumed 3 mL/kg body wt red wine. Breath alcohol concentration was measured before and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 240 min after beverage consumption. For each time point two independent breath samples were taken within 1 min and blood-samples were collected. A venous cannula (22G) was inserted into large subcutaneous vein in the left antecubital fossa to allow blood sampling.