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Reisfield GM, Teitelbaum SA, Jones JT, Lewis B. The effect of incidental ethanol exposures on the formation of blood phosphatidylethanol. Drug Test Anal 2024. [PMID: 38978169 DOI: 10.1002/dta.3752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2024] [Revised: 05/23/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
Blood phosphatidylethanol (PEth), a metabolite of ethanol, is emerging as a direct biomarker of choice for characterizing ethanol consumption in clinical, research, and forensic contexts. An accumulating body of evidence, and a recent international consensus conference, supports a cutoff of 20 μg/L of PEth (16:0/18:1) to distinguish abstinence from beverage ethanol consumption. There is a dearth of research, however, on whether exposures to nonbeverage ethanol sources are sufficient to produce PEth concentrations that exceed this cutoff. To explore this possibility, we recruited 30 participants, who indicated past-90-day abstinence from beverage alcohol, to characterize their past-30-day nonbeverage ethanol exposures (including source, frequency, and intensity of exposures) and to undergo PEth testing. Two of the 30 participants (6.7%) produced PEth concentrations ≥20 μg/L. One of these participants (PEth = 26 μg/L) reported multiple ethanol exposure sources, including near-daily intensive exposures to ethanol vapor. The other participant (PEth = 49 μg/L) reported only once-daily use of an ethanol-containing mouthwash; the veracity of his abstinence claim is refuted. The results of this study support a rebuttable presumption that PEth ≥20 μg/L is indicative of beverage ethanol consumption. They suggest, however, that intensive, incidental alcohol exposures have the potential, under unusual circumstances, to result in PEth concentrations that modestly exceed this threshold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gary M Reisfield
- University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA
| | - Scott A Teitelbaum
- Florida Recovery Center, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA
| | - Joseph T Jones
- United States Drug Testing Laboratories, Inc., Des Plaines, Illinois, USA
| | - Ben Lewis
- Florida Recovery Center, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA
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Winder GS, Clifton EG, Denysenko L, DiChiara AM, Hathaway D, Perumalswami PV, Shenoy A, Suzuki J, Tareen K, Mellinger JL, Fernandez AC. "But I didn't drink!": What to do with discordant phosphatidylethanol results. Liver Transpl 2024; 30:213-222. [PMID: 37486958 DOI: 10.1097/lvt.0000000000000223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 07/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
Liver transplantation (LT) teams must be adept at detecting, evaluating, and treating patients' alcohol use, given its prominence among psychological and behavioral phenomena which cause and contribute to liver diseases. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is a highly useful alcohol biomarker increasingly recommended for routine use in hepatology and LT. PEth is unique among alcohol biomarkers because of its wide detection window, high sensitivity and specificity, and the correlation of its numerical value with different patterns of alcohol use. Alongside myriad clinical opportunities in hepatology and LT, PEth also confers numerous challenges: little guidance exists about its clinical use; fearing loss of LT access and the reactions of their clinicians and families, candidates and recipients are incentivized to conceal their alcohol use; and liver clinicians report lack of expertise diagnosing and treating substance-related challenges. Discordance between patient self-reported alcohol use and toxicology is yet another common and particularly difficult circumstance. This article discusses the general toxicological properties of PEth; explores possible scenarios of concordance and discordance among PEth results, patient history, and self-reported drinking; and provides detailed clinical communication strategies to explore discordance with liver patients, a key aspect of its use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerald Scott Winder
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Erin G Clifton
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Lex Denysenko
- Department of Psychiatry, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Alex M DiChiara
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - David Hathaway
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ponni V Perumalswami
- Department of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology Section, Veterans Affairs, Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Akhil Shenoy
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA
| | - Joji Suzuki
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kinza Tareen
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jessica L Mellinger
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Anne C Fernandez
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Nguyen VL, Simon TW. Letter to the Editor: Modeling the changing face of Phosphatidylethanol's window of detection. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 2024; 146:105537. [PMID: 38052393 DOI: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2023.105537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Van Long Nguyen
- Department of Chemical Pathology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, NSW Health Pathology, NSW, Australia.
| | - Ted W Simon
- LLC, 4184 Johnston Road, Winston, GA, 30187, USA
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Helander A, Hansson T. The alcohol biomarker phosphatidylethanol (PEth) - test performance and experiences from routine analysis and external quality assessment. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 2023; 83:424-431. [PMID: 37697976 DOI: 10.1080/00365513.2023.2253734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 08/28/2023] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
Abstract
Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) are membrane molecules formed from phosphatidylcholine and ethanol through transphosphatidylation catalyzed by phospholipase D. Measurement of the main PEth form 16:0/18:1 is used as a specific and sensitive alcohol biomarker, since its formation requires ethanol, it accumulates in the blood upon repeated ethanol exposure, and it is only slowly eliminated during abstinence. PEth formation correlates with alcohol intake at the population level, albeit with considerable inter-individual variation as for the half-life during withdrawal. Over the past decade, the use of PEth has increased significantly and the applications have broadened. In Sweden, routine decision limits and the interpretation of test results for PEth were harmonized in 2013, using < 0.05 µmol/L (∼35 µg/L) as the recommended lower reporting limit and values > 0.30 µmol/L (∼210 µg/L) to indicate regular high alcohol intake. Routine test results show a large variation with about half being < 0.05 µmol/L and some even exceeding 10 µmol/L. In 2013, an external quality assessment (EQA) scheme for PEth 16:0/18:1 measurement in whole blood was also started (Equalis, Uppsala, Sweden), presently involving 56 laboratories from 13 countries. The agreement of PEth results between the laboratories has gradually improved to a CV < 15%. The current clinical and scientific information suggests that PEth values below the lower reporting limit (typically ∼0.03-0.05 µmol/L, or ∼20-35 µg/L) indicates sobriety or only low or occasional alcohol consumption, while regular high alcohol intake at levels corresponding to harmful drinking is required in most cases to reach PEth values > 0.30 µmol/L.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anders Helander
- Departments of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Laboratory, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Therese Hansson
- Department of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, Division of Laboratory Medicine, Office for Medical Services, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden
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Herzog J, Skopp G, Musshoff F. Development and Validation of Seven Phosphatidylethanol Homologues in Dried Blood Spots Including Preliminary Results after Excessive Use of an Ethanol-Based Hand Sanitizer. J Anal Toxicol 2023; 47:245-252. [PMID: 36287059 PMCID: PMC9620346 DOI: 10.1093/jat/bkac086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) has become a widespread marker offering an up to 4-week retrospective window to detect alcohol use. Due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019, ethanol-based hand sanitizers are frequently used. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a method for the determination of up to seven different homologues of PEth from dried blood spots (DBSs) after use of an ethanol-based hand sanitizer. The objectives of its preliminary application were to prove whether a threshold of 20 ng/mL for PEth 16:0/18:1 is reached and whether other homologues are formed as well as if positive findings of urinary ethyl glucuronide (UEtG) can be observed with respect to assess monitoring of abstinence control programs. Ten volunteers (8 occasional and 2 regular drinkers) were recruited to excessively use an ethanol-based hand sanitizer on 5 successive days. DBSs and urine samples were collected daily. PEth and UEtG were determined by liquid chromatography--tandem mass spectrometry. In total, two volunteers with initial PEth 16:0/18:1 concentrations of 19.3 and 14.6 ng/mL exceeded the threshold of 20 ng/mL six times. Subjects drinking daily or almost daily had starting PEth 16:0/18:1 concentrations of 242 and 354 ng/mL, showing a decline of PEth concentrations in six out of the seven homologues over 5 days. In teetotalers, formation of PEth species could not be observed. Thus, not satisfying requirements in an alcohol monitoring program with initial PEth-negative blood cannot be explained by a frequent use of ethanol-based hand sanitizer only. In cases of regular alcohol consumption, PEth homologues are not likely to be further influenced. However, results indicated that individuals with a PEth concentration close to 20 ng/mL are at risk of exceeding the threshold by using ethanol-based hand sanitizer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josefine Herzog
- Corresponding author: Josefine Herzog Forensic Toxicological Center (FTC) Munich Dessauerstr. 13-15, 80992 Munich, Germanye-Mail:
| | - Gisela Skopp
- Forensic Toxicological Center Munich, Munich, Germany
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Aboutara N, Jungen H, Szewczyk A, Müller A, Iwersen-Bergmann S. PEth 16:0/18:1 and 16:0/18:2 after consumption of low doses of alcohol-A contribution to cutoff discussion. Drug Test Anal 2023; 15:104-114. [PMID: 36181234 DOI: 10.1002/dta.3376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2022] [Revised: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Phosphatidylethanol in blood has gained recognition as a direct alcohol biomarker. Although different cutoffs have been suggested, there is no consensus for differentiating abstinence from alcohol consumption. In this study, 75 participants (72% female) consumed 20 g of ethanol on three consecutive evenings. Blood was sampled on each following day and PEth 16:0/18:1 and 16:0/18:2 were determined. PEth 16:0/18:1 ranged from 8.9-21.5, 8.7-19.3, and 8.8-42.3 ng/ml and PEth 16:0/18:2 from 8.7-31.7, 9.0-39.3, and 9.4-43.0 ng/ml after the respective days of ethanol consumption. PEth 16:0/18:1 yielded a sensitivity of 25%, 45%, and 49% and PEth 16:0/18:2 of 40%, 61%, and 68% for the consumption days, respectively (cutoff 10 ng/ml). PEth 16:0/18:1 reached >20 ng/ml in five samples overall. Sensitivity of PEth 16:0/18:2 > 20 ng/ml was better with 35% after the three drinking days. Overall, PEth 16:0/18:1 was >35 ng/ml in one sample and PEth 16:0/18:2 in three samples. Significantly, more women had PEth 16:0/18:1 > 10 ng/ml after the third day of consuming 20 g of alcohol (p = 0.02) and PEth 16:0/18:2 > 10 ng/ml after the second (p = 0.023) and the third (p = 0.002) consumption, which can be led back to the higher blood alcohol concentration women reach after consuming the same alcohol amount as men. Although the response rates of PEth to alcohol uptake are subject to strong interindividual differences, results suggest that PEth cutoff should be lowered for better detection of consumption of low to medium amounts of alcohol. Furthermore, it is advantageous to analyze both PEth 16:0/18:2 and 16:0/18:1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Aboutara
- Department of Legal Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Hilke Jungen
- Department of Legal Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Anne Szewczyk
- Department of Legal Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Alexander Müller
- Department of Legal Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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