Abstract
The concentration of alcohol in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of man has for many years been accepted as an index of the state of his intoxication. There is often, however, difficulty in obtaining blood or cerebrospinal fluid from individuals under the influence of alcohol; and it is therefore more advisable to use, when possible, a more accessible and equally trustworthy index.
Friedmann and Brook 1 have recently shown that saliva also contains ethyl alcohol. We have performed a series of determinations on this fluid to see whether or not the concentration of EtOH found in it has some simple relationship to that found in a corresponding blood sample. The methods (macro and micro) used in this study have been described; 2 we should like to point out that in the following cases the results of the two methods agreed within ±3%.
In 30 cases of normal individuals the saliva EtOH concentration was 0 mg. %, while the blood alcohol values of this group were from 0 to 7 mg. %.
Similar determinations in 50 cases of individuals in various states of intoxication showed satisfactory correlation of the EtOH concentrations in the saliva specimens with those in the corresponding bloods. The results of these experiments are perhaps best indicated in Fig. 1. There is an average deviation between the 2 of ±10 mg. % EtOH; however, when an attempt is made to associate the blood and saliva alcohol concentrations with four arbitrary degrees of intoxication, 2 the following table can be set up:
I am indebted to Dr. I. Greenwald for having suggested this problem and for his continued kind interest in the work. I also wish to express my gratitude to Dr. N. Jolliffe for his sincere cooperation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.