A rapid method for blood alcohol determination by headspace analysis using an electrochemical detector.

A method for the determination of blood alcohol concentration by headspace analysis using an electrochemical detector is described. A determination can be made within 2 min, and only 0.1 ml of blood is required for each analysis. The detector response was linearly related to ethanol concentrations up to 3.0 mg/ml. The standard deviation of a single determination was +/- 0.014 mg/ml. The accuracy of the method based on comparison with an enzymatic (alcohol dehydrogenase) technique was high, the mean recovery being 102.2% of the attributed concentration. The ease of the operation and fast analysis time make the method ideal for serial determinations, for example during mass screening of biological samples for ethyl alcohol in forensic and toxicology laboratories.