Serum Ethanol Concentrations in Relation to Sex and Age in Patients Admitted to a Large Emergency Department During 2015–2020

We examined the number of patients tested for serum ethanol concentration (SEC) at admission to a large Emergency Department (ED) and the relationship of SEC with sex and age. SEC was analysed by enzymatic method. We retrieved SEC in patient samples from the ED during 2015–2020 from the laboratory information system. Altogether, 174 378 patients were admitted, and 7.3% were tested for SEC. Of these, 35.3% had a positive test. The percentage of patients tested increased from 4.8% in 2015 to 14.4% in 2020. A total of 416 patients had more than one positive SEC. For individual data, we included the first positive test per patient, n = 3607. Of these, 73% were men and 27% were women. The median SEC for both men and women was 1.9 g/L. About 4.4% had a SEC ≥ 3.5 g/L. The median SEC in patients aged 30–59 years was 0.2 g/L higher than the 12–29 and ≥ 60 age groups. In conclusion, the increase in the percentage of patients tested did not lead to a corresponding increase in ethanol-positive tests. There was a large predominance of men, the median SEC was the same for men and women and highest in the 30–59 age group.