Novel instrumentation for determination of ethanol concentrations in human perspiration by gas chromatography and a good interrelationship between ethanol concentrations in sweat and blood

Abstract

Novel instrumentation for the estimation of ethanol concentration in sweat is proposed. It is composed of a sampling probe attached directly to the skin surface, a sweat rate meter for measuring the total amount of sweat secreted, a cold trap and a capillary gas chromatograph. The variation of ethanol concentration in sweat after ingestion has been measured precisely at intervals of 5–20 min. At the same time the ethanol concentration in blood was also determined by using a clinically authorized method. Ethanol concentrations both in sweat and blood are well related. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a clear relationship has been demonstrated during the whole elapsed period after ethanol ingestion. As the proposed method uses non-invasive sampling it may be applicable to testing for ethanol instead of the normal method using blood.