ethyl glucuronide in urine

Indications

• alcoholism in remission

Reference interval

• three different test levels are commonly available:
  • 100 ng/mL testing
    • most commonly used to monitor individuals for professional or clinical reasons, such as impaired health professionals
    • often used by criminal justice agencies
    • testing at this level will occasionally pick up incidental exposure
  • 250 ng/mL testing
    • detects about 97% of episodes of alcohol use compared with 100 ng/mL testing
    • high enough cut-off to avoid most incidental exposure
  • 500 ng/mL testing
    • detects about 90% of episodes of alcohol use compared with 100 ng/mL testing
    • used increasingly, especially for routine clinical & forensic applications
    • most inadvertent alcohol exposures result in levels below 500 ng/mL

Clinical significance

• an elimination product of ingested ethanol
• appears in urine for up to 80-hours after consumption
• more sensitive & reliable indicator of both drinking & abstinence than urine alcohol
• detects alcohol consumption up to 3.5 days from the time of urine collection
• detectable in urine up to 5 days after heavy binge drinking

Methods

• LC/MS/MS; liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy

Procedure

• testing is a process similar to other lab-based drugs of abuse testing
• a chain of custody process is followed

More general terms

• ethyl glucuronide in specimen
• urine toxicology

More specific terms

• ethyl glucuronide in urine confirmatory
• ethyl glucuronide in urine screen

Additional terms

• ethyl glucuronide

Component of

• ethyl glucuronide/creatinine in urine