Penttilä A, Karhunen P J, Vuori E
Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Forensic Sci Int. 1989 Jul;42(1-2):95-102. doi: 10.1016/0379-0738(89)90202-8.
Blood alcohol concentration was determined in 1672 sudden and unexpected natural and non-natural out-of-hospital deaths. The material covered all medicolegal autopsies in the province of Uusimaa which has a population of approximately 1.1 million inhabitants. In general, the prevalence of cases with alcohol in the blood at the time of death was high but varied considerably according to sex, age, and the cause and manner of death. The blood alcohol result was positive in 36% of the male and in 15% of the female material. In 59% of the alcohol-positive male and in 54% of the alcohol-positive female cases the actual concentrations were at least 1.5%. Acute use of alcohol was regarded as a significant condition contributing to death in 23% of the whole male and in 8% of the whole female material. These gross results and the details presented indicate that the acute use of excess alcohol is a factor contributing to non-natural but also to sudden and unexpected natural deaths to an extent that is not generally known. The results also emphasize that simple blood alcohol determination should be a routine procedure in the autopsy praxis of all sudden and unexpected natural and non-natural out-of-hospital deaths.
对1672例突发且意外的自然和非自然院外死亡病例进行了血液酒精浓度测定。该材料涵盖了拥有约110万居民的新地区所有法医尸检案例。总体而言，死亡时血液中含有酒精的病例比例较高，但因性别、年龄以及死亡原因和方式的不同而有很大差异。男性材料中有36%的血液酒精检测结果呈阳性，女性材料中有15%呈阳性。在酒精检测呈阳性的男性病例中，59%以及在酒精检测呈阳性的女性病例中，54%的实际浓度至少为1.5%。在全部男性材料的23%以及全部女性材料的8%中，急性酒精使用被视为导致死亡的一个重要因素。这些总体结果和所呈现的细节表明，急性过量饮酒在一定程度上是导致非自然死亡以及突发且意外的自然死亡的一个因素，而这一程度通常并不为人所知。结果还强调，对于所有突发且意外的自然和非自然院外死亡的尸检实践，简单的血液酒精测定应成为一项常规程序。
