Korean Journal of Legal Medicine  2008;32(2):153-159

Abnormally High Blood Ethanol Concentration of Heart Blood : A Case Report and Review of Literatures.

Joo Young NA 1 ; Byung Woo MIN ; Young Jik LEE ; Jong Tae PARK ; Hyung Seok KIM

Affiliations

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Keywords

Blood Alcohol concentration (BAC); Alcohol consumption; Head trauma, Cause of death, Autopsy

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

A 48 years old man was sent to hospital through emergency room immediately after head injuries. He was arrived at hospital being dead and autopsy was done sixty hours later after insult. Multiple skull fractures and brain parenchymal contusions, subarachnoid hemorrhage, stem hemorrhage were noted, and these injuries were considering as a cause of death. Interestingly, blood alcohol concentration (BAC) using cardiac blood was very high (0.738%) in this case. Here in, we report abnormally high BAC in heart blood which is not a cause of death and we review the general aspects about alcohol concentration interpretation.