DIAGNOSIS OF ALCOHOL INTOXICATION IN VICTIMS OF EMERGENCIES

Abstract

Relevance. In the case of death from injury, the question of whether the victim was intoxicated and to what extent, as the presence of alcohol intoxication could have affected the thanatogenesis of death is important. A reliable method of determining the concentration of ethanol in the body is its study in the blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid. But in extreme conditions, in large-scale disasters, during military conflicts, there may be difficulties in the selection, storage, transportation, and research of biological fluids. Therefore, the search for reliable non-invasive rapid methods is relevant.
 The objective is the development of a set of criteria for improving the accuracy of detecting the presence of ethanol and determining its amount in deaths due to trauma in emergencies by non-invasive rapid methods.
 Materials and methods. Review of scientific publications in international electronic scientometric databases PubMed, Embase, and Scopus by keywords. Search depth - 10 years (2008-2018). Comparison of literature data with the results of own research on the possibility of diagnosing alcohol intoxication to detect the presence and determination of ethanol in biological fluids (saliva, blood, urine) of persons who died and died in emergencies by indicative and evidentiary methods.
 Results. The possibility of using the non-invasive express method (indicator test strips) as a guide to detecting the presence and quantification of ethanol in the saliva of deaths and deaths from injuries in emergencies, conflicts, in the absence of the necessary conditions for blood storage and urine (lack of power supply, the impossibility of freezing objects, storage, destruction of objects during transportation, etc.) was described. It is proved that the average result of the quantitative content of ethanol in blood and urine, found in the evidence-based method of research (gas-liquid chromatography), coincides and confirms the result obtained by us in conducting a non-invasive rapid method using indicator test strips. In the course of the conducted researches, the conformity concerning objectivity and correctness of detection of the presence and quantitative content of ethyl alcohol with the use of indicator test strips which is confirmed by researches of blood, urine by evidential methods (gas-liquid chromatography) is proved.
 Conclusion. A non-invasive rapid method (indicator test strips) can be used as a guide to detect the presence of ethyl alcohol and determine its quantitative content in the saliva of the dead and deceased, with subsequent confirmation by evidence-based methods of research (gas-liquid chromatography) of blood, urine.