Inter- and intra-individual variability of ethanol pharmacokinetics over a long period of time.

In most research, the inter- and intra-individual variability of time profiles of ethanol concentration has been studied over a relatively short period of time. We present a study of inter- and intra-individual variability of ethanol pharmacokinetics in five healthy volunteers (social drinkers) over a period of around eight years. The volunteers received a dose of 0.7 g/kg (men) and 0.6 g/kg (women) of ethanol in the form of vodka diluted with mineral water. The blood ethanol concentrations in a series of samples were measured by gas chromatography. For pharmacokinetic calculations, a model with first-order absorption and Michaelis-Menten elimination was applied. A linear regression technique was used to calculate Widmark's coefficient. The area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) was calculated by trapezoid rule. A tendency for pharmacokinetic parameters to alter during the study time was observed, however, these changes were random and did not correlate with the duration of the study. The highest inter- and intra-subject variability of the half time of absorption was observed. The maximal elimination velocity and Michaelis-Menten constant were also very unstable; coefficients of variation were 55.8% and 79.0%, respectively. Other calculated pharmacokinetic parameters (AUC, beta60, V/F, Cmax) were characterized by a lower variability with a coefficient of variation around 36%. Back extrapolation of plasma ethanol concentration using mean value of beta60 for each subject showed that results could be underestimated up to 26% or overestimated up to 102%.

[Personalization concepts of medical ethics in the teachings of John Paul II]. / Personalistyczna koncepcja etyki lekarskiej w nauczaniu Jana Pawla II.

According to John Paul's teaching, the medicine cannot be purely technological, but needs to have some human character. The medicine doctors should consider patients as a whole, not only their problems bound with the treating them as patients, and to cure them from their illnesses, but together considering their feelings, and their intellectual and spiritual life. John Paul's teaching in relation to "the personalizing of medicine" means such a consideration of the human being that is leading to the respect about the body, spirit and their culture. Therefore the knowledge about the biological properties of human life, should be accompanied together with the look onto their dignity. Nobody could be a doctor who cures only one organ of the human's body, but must see the whole human person together with the relations to other persons connected with that patient, because they have very often much of influence on to the health of a patient. That "personalizing of the medicine" should be done on such a way, when it is seen the total ill person. The doctor should be having friendly and even heartily personal relationship to the patient, which should lead to a dialog between them, full of respect and confidence. Nobody is allowed to consider an ill person as a clinical case, but should see a person who is expecting not only professional, competent medical attention, but also the understanding of the patient's spirit, which is being bound with that illness. In this way, John Paul II is telling us, that the health service should not be based entirely on the professional knowledge and skill. The doctor should see in the ill person his own dearest brother or sister, whom we are to love very much, and should be taking part in the illnesses of them.

n-Butanol in blood as the indicator of how long a dead body lay in water.

n-Butanol appears in large quantities in the blood of a drowned person and a correlation exists between its quantity (concentration) and the time the body lay in water. This correlation depends on the temperature of the water but not on whether it is fresh or salt water. The time of death can be fixed within the span of 0-26 days after the event, as we have found out in our research (no longer period has been examined).