~ 1 ~ International Journal of Forensic Medicine 2020; 2(2): 01-03 E-ISSN: 2707-4455 P-ISSN: 2707-4447 IJFM 2020; 2(2): 01-03 Received: 08-02-2020 Accepted: 21-04-2020 Dr. Sham Kishore K Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Srinivas Institute of Medical Sciences & Research center, Mukka, Mangalore, Karnataka, India Dr. Sudarshan Reddy Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, SSPM Medical College and lifetime Hospital Padve Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, India Dr. Amudha Saharan Assistant Professor Department of Forensic Medicine, Government Medical College Omandurar Government Estate, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: Dr. Sudarshan Reddy Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, SSPM Medical College and lifetime Hospital Padve Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, India Change in blood alcohol concentration with time in samples collected from living Dr. Sham Kishore K, Dr. Sudarshan Reddy and Dr. Amudha Saharan DOI: https://doi.org/10.33545/27074447.2020.v2.i2a.22 Abstract Blood alcohol level estimation is usually done in various circumstances where the blood collected from the accused/victim is then sent to the FSL for alcohol level estimation. In India there may be delay in this process, the delay may be due to the medical examiner or police to send the sample or by the FSL to analyze the same. The present study was done to find out the differences in the blood alcohol level due to the above said delays. The blood alcohol estimation was done using gas chromatography, and the test was done on 4 known samples with a time gap of 24 hours, 7 days and 14 days. Keywords: Blood alcohol estimation, forensic science lab, delay, gas chromatography Introduction Alcohol consumption and related crimes are on the rise. Most common crime related to alcohol can be drinking and driving. Traffic accidents and fatalities due to driving under the influence of alcohol are on the rise in India. Accurate determination of blood alcohol concentration is of great importance Medico legally. Generally in police checking breathalyzers are used to estimate the alcohol concentration in the offender’s body. But in cases where a medical officers help is taken to examine and issue a drunkenness certificate, and also in road traffic accident cases where autopsy is warranted, blood is collected in vacutainers or plastic bottles with added preservatives and sent to Forensic Science Laboratory for estimation of blood alcohol concentration. In Medico legal cases, it is important to provide an intact chain of possession from the person who is drawing the blood to the analyst [1] . Blood is collected by the Medical officer, handed over to the investigating officer who in turn hands over the sample to the Forensic Science laboratory. Gas chromatograph is used to estimate the concentration of blood in such set up. The blood in such cases is collected, stored in various ways and most of the times the blood may not be analysed immediately. The reasons may be backlog in the end of Forensic Science Laboratories which most of times are over burdened. The reason for delay sometimes may be due to delay in collection of the collected sample from the mortuary/hospital by the police or delay in handing over the sample to the Forensic Science Laboratory. The condition and time for which the sample is stored may thus vary. This may lead to change in alcohol concentration in the collected sample. In such cases there can be loss of alcohol from the sample due to evaporation [2] , oxidation [3] or adsorption into the rubber stopper or there can be increase in alcohol concentration due to in vitro synthesis of alcohol due to bacterial action [2] . Some studies have indicated that ethanol in blood for alcohol estimation remains stable when Sodium Fluoride is used as preservative and blood is refrigerated [4] . In this study an attempt was made to assess the change in blood alcohol concentration with time. Materials and Methods The objective of this study was to study the change in blood alcohol concentration with time in samples obtained from living human subjects during the year 2013. Sample size of the present study was 4 volunteers. 12 vacutainers, sodium fluoride, potassium oxalate, four 10 ml syringes were kept ready (Picture 1). Written informed consent was taken from the volunteers. 3 subjects were asked to consume alcohol. 3 volunteers consumed Vodka with 38% concentration.