Division of Forensic Toxicology, Dept Anatomy, Histology, and Legal Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Firenze, Italy.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2011 Apr 5;54(5):1192-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2010.11.032. Epub 2010 Nov 30.
A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for the determination of ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate, ethyl oleate, and ethyl stearate in hair samples was developed, validated and applied to real samples. Ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate, ethyl oleate, and ethyl stearate are fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) which are known to be direct biotransformation products of ethanol. Their presence in the body fluids and tissue is therefore indicative of alcohol intake and, in particular, FAEE concentration in hair higher than 0.5 ng/mg is indicative of excessive chronic alcohol consumption. The method was applied to 80 hair samples formerly found positive for cocaine and FAEE analytical results were compared with the presence of cocaethylene, a cocaine metabolite formed only when alcohol and cocaine are used together. According to our data the two biomarkers (FAEE and cocaethylene in hair) are tools of great value in the assessment of the diagnosis of use of cocaine and ethanol. In fact, discrepancies were noted and might be related to various factors including differences in consumption habits and thus permitting to distinguish the use of both substances non-concurrently or concurrently. Also, the determination of both markers may, in some cases, discriminate the use of moderate or heavy alcohol amounts when associated with cocaine. Finally, in a population of non-cocaine-users our results support FAEE as valuable means in the assessment of excessive alcohol chronic use.
建立了一种测定头发中肉豆蔻酸乙酯、棕榈酸乙酯、油酸乙酯和硬脂酸乙酯的气相色谱-质谱法，并对其进行了验证和应用。肉豆蔻酸乙酯、棕榈酸乙酯、油酸乙酯和硬脂酸乙酯是脂肪酸乙酯（FAEE），已知是乙醇的直接生物转化产物。因此，它们在体液和组织中的存在表明有酒精摄入，特别是头发中 FAEE 浓度高于 0.5ng/mg 表明存在过量的慢性酒精摄入。该方法应用于 80 个以前可卡因阳性的头发样本，将 FAEE 分析结果与可卡因代谢物可卡乙二醛的存在进行了比较，可卡乙二醛只有在同时使用酒精和可卡因时才会形成。根据我们的数据，这两种生物标志物（头发中的 FAEE 和可卡乙二醛）是评估可卡因和乙醇使用诊断的非常有价值的工具。事实上，我们注意到了差异，这些差异可能与各种因素有关，包括消费习惯的差异，从而可以区分两种物质的同时或不同时使用。此外，在某些情况下，同时测定这两种标志物可以区分与可卡因同时使用的酒精的中等或大量使用。最后，在非可卡因使用者人群中，我们的结果支持 FAEE 作为评估慢性过量饮酒的有价值手段。
