Section 5 of 6
Limitations/strengths
Anna Holzer, Jasna Neumann, Andreas Stoever, Matthias Graw, Sylvia Schick, Anouk Ludwig, Michael Boettcher, and Benno Hartung · about 1 minutes
The duration of alcohol intake, the timing of peak BAC, and the conclusion of the proceedings remain unclear, limiting the precise interpretation of PEth and EtG concentrations.
Furthermore, samples were stored refrigerated in the police station, but transported to Munich without temperature control during a relatively cold period, although in vitro PEth formation in the presence of ethanol at room temperature has been reported in previous studies [18, 19]. Neumann et al. demonstrated that no in vitro formation of PEth in presence of alcohol was observed at storage temperature of 4 °C within a 4 week period. PEth formation in presence of alcohol (1.6 g/l) was also tested at room temperature. After 72 h a mean formation of 54 ng/ml was observed [19]. Since the samples were transported during a relatively cold period PEth formation can be considered to be low.
Despite these limitations, this study uniquely analyzed consecutive blood samples for multiple alcohol biomarkers of real traffic offenses — an approach not routinely performed and permitted only with approval from the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia.