Non-uniformity of blood ethanol elimination: its exaggeration after chronic consumption.

In baboons blood ethanol disappearance was 11.6% faster at high ethanol (HE) concentrations (45-20 mM) than at low ethanol concentrations (LE) (15-5 mM). The feeding of alcohol in a liquid diet for three months or up to five years augmented the difference between HE and LE to 14 and 28.6% respectively. These results were confirmed in a preliminary experiment with a human volunteer given ethanol for four weeks under metabolic ward conditions. The findings are in favour of the existence and induction of a non-ADH high Km pathway for ethanol oxidation. The common medicolegal practice of calculation previous blood-ethanol levels by linear extrapolation should be re-considered.