Application of quantitative ethanol detector (QED) test kit to measure ethanol concentration in blood samples.

In this paper, the applicability of the quantitative ethanol detector (QED) test kit for screening of ethanol concentrations in blood samples was investigated. The pretreatment of blood using the sulfosalicylic acid solution and the three-way stopcock followed by membrane filtration gave satisfactory results. The ethanol concentrations in whole blood samples (n=61) determined by QED correlated well with those determined by gas chromatography; the correlation coefficient indicated 0.990. Because a high correlation coefficient (0.928) was also confirmed in trial by investigators, QED test should be highly considered for ethanol screening in forensic praxis.

[Application of Q.E.D. and Alco-Screen test kits to measurements of ethanol in forensic samples].

We have investigated the applicability of the Q.E.D. (Quantitative Ethanol Detector) and Aloco-Screen test kits for screening ethanol concentrations in forensic samples, such as hemolyzed/decomposed blood, urine and vitreous humor. Because both kits were based on enzymatic color reactions, direct application of the kits to hemoglobin-rich samples gave unsatisfactory results. The deproteinization of blood with trichloroacetic acid followed by membrane filtration overcame such problem. This procedure was also effective for pretreatment of urine and vitreous humor samples to suppress excessive color development in the Alco-Screen test. The ethanol concentrations in whole blood (n = 29), urine (n = 7) and vitreous humor (n = 6) samples determined by the Q.E.D. kit correlated well with those determined by gas chromatography; the correlation coefficients were 0.986, 0.975 and 0.993, respectively. Because of its high specificity and sensitivity to ethanol, Q.E.D. seems to be highly reliable for quantitative estimation of ethanol concentrations in forensic samples. Alco-Screen also had high sensitivity, the specificity to ethanol was relatively low; the color reaction was also observed in the presence of acetone, n-propanol, toluene, methanol, ethylene glycol, methamphetamine, diazepam and dichrovos. Therefore, if forensic samples are analyzed by the Alco-Screen, it is essential to confirm the positive results using other analytical methods.

Detection of ABH blood group antigens from minute human hairs using polyvinylidene difluoride membrane with elution--ELISA method.

A sensitive and simple method for ABH blood grouping of human hairs using a polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane was described. The hairs sensitized with monoclonal antibodies were applied onto the membrane and heated at 60 degrees C on a hot plate. When the membrane was examined with ELISA using a peroxidase-conjugated anti-IgM antibody, group-specific streaky stains were perceived on the membrane, because the eluates directly bound to the membrane. The present method could be available to the detection of minute antigens of short hairs.