Artifactual production and recovery of acetaldehyde from ethanol in urine

Ethanol (1575 mg/L) incubated with fresh urine from healthy, ethanol-free subjects yields acetaldehyde. The concentration of acetaldehyde depends upon temperature, time of incubation, and pH. In samples made hypertonic with sodium chloride (200 mg/mL) and in samples filtered through 0.45-micron membranes, acetaldehyde production was not decreased. L-Ascorbic acid (0.1 mg/mL) added to normal pooled urine caused a threefold increase in acetaldehyde production but thiourea (7.6 mg/mL) stopped it. This suggests that the oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde is catalyzed by the semidehydroascorbate peroxy radical of ascorbic acid. Recovery of acetaldehyde added to urine was less than 100% over the pH range 1.5 to 10. Relative to blood, artifactual production of acetaldehyde from ethanol in urine is more easily controlled and is up to an order of magnitude less but corrections for the variables above are still required.