Ethyl glucuronide in human hair

Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is considered to be a promising candidate marker of alcohol consumption, but exhibits a short window of detection in blood or urine. Keratinized tissues are known to retain foreign substances and to pr ovide a greater retrospective window of detection than body fluids. Therefo re, post-mortem hair, skin swabs, and stratum corneum samples were collecte d from four subjects with a reported history of alcohol misuse and from sev en subjects with a report of regular, socially accepted drinking behaviour, and were investigated for EtG. Additionally, certain specimens were collec ted from three children, who had not yet consumed any alcoholic beverages. EtG was detectable in most of the hair and stratum corneum samples as well as in perspiration stains from alcohol-consuming subjects. The results indi cated that EtG might be formed locally in very small and highly variable am ounts. The most important finding was that EtG cannot be expected to be gen erally detectable in keratinized tissues or perspiration stains from alcoho l-drinking subjects, whereas a positive result is always associated with re cent alcohol consumption.