Development of dosing guidelines for reaching selected target breath alcohol concentrations.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated gender-specific ethanol dosing protocols that were designed to result in one of two peak breath alcohol concentrations (BrACs)--0.07 or 0.10 g/2101. Inter- and intrasubject variability in BrAC were assessed and several possible methods for reducing variability in BrAC were evaluated.


METHODS
Subjects (16 women, 16 men, ages 21-30 years) were studied after low (women 0.49 g/kg, men 0.53 g/kg consumed over 10 minutes) and high (women 0.81 g/kg, men 0.89 g/kg consumed over 20 minutes) ethanol doses, consumed following a 4-hour fast. All subjects were regular drinkers.


RESULTS
Mean (+/-SD) peak BrACs actually achieved were 0.069+/-0.011 g/2101 after the low dose, and 0.105+/-0.014 g/2101 after the high dose. Mean values for peak BrAC, time to peak BrAC and area under the curve were not statistically significantly different between genders at either dose. BrACs varied by as much as twofold between subjects after equivalent gender and body weight adjusted doses. There was some reproducibility of ethanol pharmacokinetic parameters over dose and time in men, but not in women.


CONCLUSIONS
The doses used resulted in equivalent mean ethanol exposures for women and men at each dose, with mean peak BrACs that closely approached the targets, but there was substantial inter- and intrasubject variability in ethanol pharmacokinetics.
Friel
P N
PN
Washington State Toxicology Laboratory, Seattle 98134, USA.
Logan
B K
BK
O'Malley
D
D
Baer
J S
JS
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001944:Breath Tests; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate / Q000502:physiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012737:Sex Factors
D000431:Ethanol