Postmortem blood alcohol concentration.

The relation between the blood alcohol concentration and the vitreous humor alcohol concentration, blood propanol-1 concentration, and the signs of putrefaction of the body was described by a multiple regression equation. The calculations showed that the blood alcohol concentration increased 0.79/1000 when the vitreous humor alcohol concentration increased 1.00/1000, and that a blood propanol-1 content and signs of putrefaction had a significant influence on the postmortem ethanol concentration. The postmortem blood alcohol concentration increased 0.01/1000 in mean when the blood propanol-1 concentration increased 1 mg/kg, and increased 0.05/1000 when the body showed sign of putrefaction. The variance of the blood alcohol concentration between blood within the same body was independent of the ethanol concentration level. The pooled standard deviation was 0.05/1000.