Rapid measurement of blood ethanol concentrations using the alcohol oxidase membrane technique

The alcohol oxidase membrane technique is available for measurement of ethanol in commercial fluids. In this paper we examined its usefulness for cat and human blood in comparison with gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). The membrane method proved to be simple, reproducible, accurate, and inexpensive. Analysis took 1-2 min per sample and required only 25 microL of whole blood for measurement of concentrations between 0.05 and 1.0 mM (0.25-5 mg/dL) and 10 microL of whole blood for measurement of concentrations between 1.0 and 40 mM (5-190 mg/dL). Background concentrations were undetectable in cats after extraneous sources of alcohols were removed. The alcohol oxidase membrane technique is less specific than GLC, but it may be useful when ethanol is administered after background samples have shown an absence of other nonspecific reactants. Its high sensitivity is useful for kinetic studies where blood ethanol concentrations are below or close to those required for maximal hepatic ethanol metabolism.