Keywords
Post mortem; Alcohol concentration; Alcohol ratio; Prevalence
Abstract
High blood alcohol content has been associated with fatal accident, traumatic death, and violent death. The question of alcohol concentration in the body is often raised in the court of law. It is important to estimate the level of alcohol which could cause impairment or lethality. One issue faced by pathologists when performing an autopsy is an inadequate blood sample to measure Blood Alcohol Concentration (BLAC). Most often they are left with a urine sample to interpret the alcohol level in the body. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between blood and urine alcohol concentrations. This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to interpret the relation between BLAC and Urine Alcohol Concentration (UAC). A total of 473 postmortem cases with blood and/or urine samples were sent for alcohol analysis in the year 2016 at Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Total of 229 cases were analyzed for BLAC and UAC. About 2.76% of cases where urine alcohol was detected the blood alcohol was negative. There was a significant average difference between BLAC and UAC (t46 = -4.638, p < 0.001), however both were relatively strong and positively correlated (r = 0.609, p < 0.001). Regression formula could be represented using BLAC = 71.326 + 0.437 (UAC) with r = 0.609. When BLAC or UAC was detected over 50% of the cases were associated with a road traffic collision death. Prevalence of blood alcohol value above the legal limit of 80 mg/100ml was 24.6% amongst all the 142 motor vehicle accident cases sent for BLAC analysis. The average ratio of UAC/BLAC for true positive of the determined prevalence was 1.29 ± 0.22.
Citation
Hilmi SM, Lai PS, Khoo LS, Shazuwani NR, Siew SF and Kunasilan S. Relationship of Blood and Urine Alcohol Levels in Postmortem Samples and Prevalence of Alcohol Level above Legal Limit in Hospital Kuala Lumpur. SM J Forensic Res Criminol. 2017; 1(3): 1012