The comparison of alcohol concentrations in postmortem fluids and tissues

Fluid-tissue/blood alcohol ratios were calculated for a number of cases. The use of such factors to determine the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) becomes important when a blood specimen is not available or is contaminated. It was shown that estimates of blood alcohol concentrations derived from other physiological fluids or tissues can only be expressed as lying within a wide concentration range. Estimations of the BAC can be improved by using the stomach alcohol concentrations to determine if the decreased was in an absorption or postabsorption phase at the time of death.