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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Selective detection of phosphatidylethanol homologues in blood as biomarkers for alcohol consumption by LC-ESI-MS/MS
Journal of Mass Spectrometry Published Online: 12 Jun 2009

A new validated method for the quantitation of the abnormal phospholipid phosphatidylethanol (PEth) - a biomarker for ethanol uptake - has been developed by LC-ESI-MS/MS following miniaturised organic solvent extraction and reversed phase chromatography with phosphatidylbutanol (PBut) as internal standard.

Because of its higher sensitivity, there is a potential to detect single heavy drinking by LC-MS/MS, when PEth is formed in very low concentrations.

This opens a new field of application of PEth to uncover single or multiple heavy drinking at a lower frequency and with a larger window of detection in blood than before by HPLC/ELSD or by use of other direct markers, e.g. ethyl glucuronide or ethyl sulfate.

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Request Reprint E-Mail: wolfgang.weinmann@uniklinik-freiburg.de
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