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Detection of mouth alcohol during breath alcohol analysis.

Lindberg, Lars LU ; Grubb, David LU ; Dencker, Daniel ; Finnhult, Mikael and Olsson, Sven-Gunnar (2015) In Forensic Science International 249. p.66-72
Abstract
The presence of mouth alcohol (MA) during alcohol breath test for law enforcement is the most common cause of falsely high breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC). A fast and reliable test for detection of MA roadside at the scene of the act would facilitate the police efforts for proper prosecution. A tentative technique to use orally exhaled water vapour as a reference gas to position the origin of alcohol was validated. BrAC and water vapour concentration (WVC) were simultaneously measured as a known MA component was added to subjects with existing blood alcohol. In the absence of MA, water always precedes alcohol in a volumetric expirogram. In the presence of MA this relationship reversed. A scatterplot of WVC versus BrAC from similar... (More)
The presence of mouth alcohol (MA) during alcohol breath test for law enforcement is the most common cause of falsely high breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC). A fast and reliable test for detection of MA roadside at the scene of the act would facilitate the police efforts for proper prosecution. A tentative technique to use orally exhaled water vapour as a reference gas to position the origin of alcohol was validated. BrAC and water vapour concentration (WVC) were simultaneously measured as a known MA component was added to subjects with existing blood alcohol. In the absence of MA, water always precedes alcohol in a volumetric expirogram. In the presence of MA this relationship reversed. A scatterplot of WVC versus BrAC from similar fractional exhaled volumes illustrates how their relative positions change by MA. A deviation area (DA) between the scatterplot curve and a fictitious linear relationship was defined as a measurement of MA. The accuracy and cut-off level of the DA to detect MA were determined with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.95 (95% CI 0.90-1.0), indicating excellent discriminatory ability. The optimal cut-off for DA to discriminate between MA ≥0.010mg/L (1μg/100ml, 0.002g/210L) or lack of MA was -0.35, with a sensitivity of 0.91 and specificity of 0.95. Analysis of BrAC in relation to WVC is a practical method to detect and confirm MA contamination with high reliability. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Forensic Science International
volume
249
pages
66 - 72
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:25676715
  • wos:000351947300017
  • scopus:84922351039
  • pmid:25676715
ISSN
1872-6283
DOI
10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.01.017
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
36a30a9b-5276-4f16-9db7-c8b1aac6206c (old id 5143829)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25676715?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:15:19
date last changed
2022-01-25 21:28:02
@article{36a30a9b-5276-4f16-9db7-c8b1aac6206c,
  abstract     = {{The presence of mouth alcohol (MA) during alcohol breath test for law enforcement is the most common cause of falsely high breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC). A fast and reliable test for detection of MA roadside at the scene of the act would facilitate the police efforts for proper prosecution. A tentative technique to use orally exhaled water vapour as a reference gas to position the origin of alcohol was validated. BrAC and water vapour concentration (WVC) were simultaneously measured as a known MA component was added to subjects with existing blood alcohol. In the absence of MA, water always precedes alcohol in a volumetric expirogram. In the presence of MA this relationship reversed. A scatterplot of WVC versus BrAC from similar fractional exhaled volumes illustrates how their relative positions change by MA. A deviation area (DA) between the scatterplot curve and a fictitious linear relationship was defined as a measurement of MA. The accuracy and cut-off level of the DA to detect MA were determined with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.95 (95% CI 0.90-1.0), indicating excellent discriminatory ability. The optimal cut-off for DA to discriminate between MA ≥0.010mg/L (1μg/100ml, 0.002g/210L) or lack of MA was -0.35, with a sensitivity of 0.91 and specificity of 0.95. Analysis of BrAC in relation to WVC is a practical method to detect and confirm MA contamination with high reliability.}},
  author       = {{Lindberg, Lars and Grubb, David and Dencker, Daniel and Finnhult, Mikael and Olsson, Sven-Gunnar}},
  issn         = {{1872-6283}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{66--72}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Forensic Science International}},
  title        = {{Detection of mouth alcohol during breath alcohol analysis.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.01.017}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.01.017}},
  volume       = {{249}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}