Vitreous alcohol is of limited value in predicting blood alcohol

Abstract

Vitreous humour alcohol concentration (VHAC) and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) measured by gas chromatography were available from 345 medico-legal autopsies. Simple linear regression with BAC as outcome variable and VHAC as predictor variable (range 1–705 mg%) gave the regression equation BAC = 3.03 + 0.852 VHAC with 95% prediction interval ± 0.019 [7157272+( VHAC−189.7) 2] and 99% prediction interval ± 0.025 [7157272+( VHAC−189.7) 2] . The residual standard deviation of VHAC was 26 mg%, the standard error of the slope 0.0098 and the 95% confidence interval for the slope 0.833–0.871. In practice a BAC of 80 mg% is predicted with 95% certainty by a VHAC of 150 mg% and similarly a BAC of 150 mg% by a VHAC of 232 mg%. The prediction interval is too wide to be of real practical use. Previous authors have provided various formulae, including a simple conversion factor, to predict BAC from VHAC without taking into account the uncertainty of the prediction for an individual subject. A re-analysis of the raw data from previous publications gave in most instances regression equations significantly different from the authors' own.