Blood Alcohol Determination with Automated Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME): A Comparison with Static Headspace Sampling

Abstract

ABSTRACTEthanol in the blood or urine of suspected intoxicated drivers is commonly measured using static headspace GC. In this study, a new sampling technique, solid phase microextraction (SPME), was compared with conventional static headspace. Aqueous ethanol standards were sampled using a SPME fibre installed in a GC autosampler, modified for automated SPME. Linearity was demonstrated over the range 0–500 mg/100 mL with excellent precision. Next, blood and urine samples from California drivers were split and analyzed with static headspace and with SPME. The ethanol levels determined with the two techniques were similar: the correlation coefficient (r2) between the two sets of values was 0.9946.Advantages of SPME over conventional static headspace included relatively compact and less expensive hardware and no trace of sample carryover.