Vapor pressure and freezing point osmolality measurements applied to a volatile screen.

This is a report of a rapid and precise screening procedure, developed for the determination of ethanol in serum using osmolality measurements. The osmolality of the patient is determined by freezing point method (freezing point osmometry) and dew point (water vapor pressure osmometry) method. The difference between freezing point osmolality and vapor pressure osmolality (delta osm) is due to the presence of volatiles in the serum, because the volatiles are not measured by vapor pressure osmometry. The amount of ethanol (mg/dL) in serum is estimated by multiplying delta osm by a factor of 4.2. As a comparison method, ethanol also is measured by a spectrophotometric alcohol dehydrogenase method. In addition, a significant difference between an osmometric alcohol assayed value and enzymatic spectrophotometric measurement indicates the presence of volatiles, other than ethanol. In addition to ethanol there is a linear relationship between osmolality and isopropanol or methanol when added in vitro to serum.