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Published on: January 7, 2019
Decreases in blood ethanol concentrations during storage at 4 °C for 12 months were the same for specimens kept in
A W Jones1,2, E Ericsson1
1Department of Forensic Genetics and Forensic Toxicology, National Board of Forensic Medicine, Linköping, Sweden.
Background:
The stability of ethanol was investigated in blood specimens in glass or plastic evacuated tubes after storage in a refrigerator at 4 °C for up to 12 months.
Methods:
Sterile blood, from a local hospital, was divided into 50 mL portions and spiked with aqueous ethanol (10% w/v) to give target concentrations of 0.20, 1.00, 2.00 and 3.00 g/L. Ethanol was determined in blood by headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC) with an analytical imprecision of <3% (coefficient of variation, CV%). Aliquots of blood were re-analysed after 2, 7, 14, 28, 91, 182 and 364 days of storage at 4 °C.
Results:
The standard deviation (SD) of analysis by HS-GC was 0.0059 g/L at 0.20 g/L and 0.0342 g/L at 3.00 g/L, corresponding to CVs of 2.9% and 1.1%, respectively. The decreases in blood ethanol content were analytically significant after 14-28 days of storage for both glass and plastic tubes The mean (lowest and highest) loss of ethanol after 12 months storage was 0.111 g/L (0.084-0.129 g/L) for glass tubes and 0.112 g/L (0.088-0.140 g/L) for plastic tubes. The corresponding percentage losses of ethanol were 43-45% at a starting concentration of 0.20 g/L and 3.9-4.1% at 3.00 g/L.
Conclusion:
The concentration of ethanol in blood gradually decreases during storage at 4 °C. After 12 months storage the absolute decrease in concentration was ~0.11 g/L when the starting concentration ranged from 0.20 to 3.0 g/L. Decreases in ethanol content were the same for specimens kept in glass or plastic evacuated tubes.
