Ethyl glucuronide in human hair after daily consumption of 16 or 32 g of ethanol for 3 months

The overall objectives of the study were to develop a sensitive method for ethyl glucuronide (EtG) determination in hair and then investigate if a low or moderate intake of ethanol could be differentiated from total abstinence. Forty-four subjects were included in the study, 12 males (7 drinkers and 5 abstinent) and 32 females (14 drinkers and 18 abstinent). The study lasted 3 months and the female drinkers consumed one glass (16 g of ethanol) and the males consumed two glasses (32 g of ethanol) of wine (13.5–14%) daily. Hair samples were collected as close as possible above the skin and the proximal 2 cm were analyzed for EtG. Hair was cut into pieces of about 0.5 cm length and washed before incubation overnight in water and then extracted on Clean Screen EtG Carbon columns. The LC/MS/MS system consisted of a Waters ACQUITY UPLC connected to an API 4000 triple quadrupole instrument. Two transitions for EtG and one for the internal standard EtG-D5 were measured. The method was linear from 60 to 10,000 pg/sample. Imprecision studies were performed at three levels as well as with an authentic sample. Total imprecision was 16% at 200 pg/sample, 8% at 1000 pg/sample, 6% at 8000 pg/sample and 13% at 29 pg/mg in the authentic sample. Of those who drank two glasses of wine every day, four had measurable amounts of EtG in their hair (5–11 pg/mg), and in only one of the females drinking one glass of wine EtG was quantified (3 pg/mg). Among the 23 abstinent subjects two had traces of EtG in the hair. We conclude that persons who ingested 16 or 32 g of ethanol daily for 3 months presented with low concentrations of EtG in hair, well below the proposed threshold for overconsumption set at 30 pg/mg. In addition, none of those who ingested 16 g/day had concentrations over the proposed abstinence threshold of 7 pg/mg.