determination of ethyl glucuronide and fatty acid ethyl esters in hair samples

What is it about?

Hair testing for alcohol biomarkers is an important tool for monitoring alcohol consumption. We propose two methods for assessing alcohol exposure through combined analysis of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) species (ethyl myristate, palmitate, stearate and oleate) in hair .

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Why is it important?

Alcohol biomarkers are measurable substances in a biological sample, whose presence indicates some form of exposure to alcohol, and their use to assess alcohol exposure in clinical and forensic scenarios has been applied in a variety of biological specimens in the past years. One of the most notable of these specimens is hair, which presents several advantages, including non-invasive collection, ease of availability, long windows of detection and low chance of adulteration. Hair testing for alcohol exposure relies mainly on the analysis of two biomarkers, ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs). These markers have been widely applied in several studies, and were shown to present good sensitivity and specificity. The aims of this work were: Developed and optimization of analytical methods for the determination of alcohol biomarkers in hair: a. Extraction of EtG from hair, sample clean-up by solid-phase extraction and analysis by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry; b. Extraction of FAEEs from hair, sample clean-up by solid-phase extraction and analysis by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry; c. Validation of both methods according to internationally accepted guidelines for bioanalytical method validation.

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