ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT: Alcohol consumption prior to driving a vehicle is a serious problem and currently the second most common cause of fatal accidents. The gold standard to assess Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) in the evaluation of fitness to drive is the Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) method, using a blood sample obtained from the driver. In daily practice, however, breath alcohol is measured, even though it is less reliable compared with the ADH method. This study examines the feasibility of using bioimpedance as a measure for BAC. For this, Bioimpedance Spectroscopy (BIS) measurements were made in 12 healthy males while they were drinking alcohol, until reaching a BAC of 0.8%. A reference group of 9 healthy individuals drank the same amount of water. In the group drinking alcohol the extracted parameters showed a trend towards higher impedance with increasing alcohol intake; comparison of the extracellular resistance Re at the beginning and the end of the trials, these values showed a significant change (p = 0.042). In contrast, the reference group showed no significant change. In addition, the area under (ROC) curves for Re changes show good detection capabilities for 0.3%, 0.5% and 0.8%. Therefore, under certain conditions, BIS can be used to measure BAC with high specificity and sensitivity.