The Price Waterhouse Guide to Financial Management: Tools for Improving Performance
January 1990
in “
Medical Entomology and Zoology
”
TLDR A new method can quickly detect alcohol abuse by analyzing hair in under an hour.
The document discussed the development of a new, faster analytical method for detecting fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) in human hair to identify potential alcohol abuse. This method significantly reduced the total analysis time to less than 1 hour, compared to the typical 15 hours required by existing procedures. It utilized gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) with a GC separation time of under 9 minutes, employing selected reaction monitoring to enhance selectivity and sensitivity. The method's detection limits for FAEEs ranged from 0.002 to 0.030 ng/mg in hair, allowing it to potentially distinguish between heavy, moderate, and non-drinkers. This rapid analysis could be applied in various fields, including neonatal screening and determining factors in causes of death.