Assessment of dermal ethanol emission sensors: experimental design

This paper discusses methods that will be used to experimentally determine the limitations of transdermal ethanol alcohol sensors when used on human subjects. Transdermal ethanol sensors are used to measure the concentration of ethanol emitted by the surface of the skin. The maximum concentration of ethanol in the skin is proportional to the concentration of ethanol in the blood stream but is offset temporally because of the diffusion delay intrinsic to body tissue. Methods to evaluate different model ethanol sensors are discussed as well as the development and function of a portable, transdermal ethanol sensing device suitable for measuring ethanol concentration on the palm of a test subject's hand. In addition, the designs of several experiments are described to test the functional limitations of transdermal ethanol sensors in practical use settings. These experiments include tests to correlate a subject's peak blood and skin ethanol concentrations and experimental determination of different false positive sources.