The postmortem blood alcohol concentration and the water content

Determination of blood alcohol concentration and water content were performed on blood specimens from 71 bodies. Two blood specimens were sampled from each body. First-specimens (short-time-specimens) were sampled from 0 to 9.6 hours postmortem, in mean 2.1 hours. Second-specimens (long-time-specimens) were sampled from 8.0 to 229.9 hours postmortem. The relation between the blood alcohol concentration and the blood water content in the two blood specimens (first and second) is described by a multiple regression equation. The equation gave as result: if the body had no signs of putrefaction, the difference in water content between the short-time-specimens and the long-time-specimens has a significant influence on the blood alcohol concentration. This was not the case if the body had visible signs of putrefaction. Then other factors influence the blood alcohol concentration more than the water content. Our study also indicates that if a blood alcohol determination is performed on whole blood, and the blood specimen was sampled shortly after death from a case of bleeding shock, a correction of the blood alcohol concentration should be done if the blood water content is higher than 82%.