"Breath Alcohol" AND "Emergency"

UNLABELLED: Driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA) is a significant factor contributing to road traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Although the effects of alcohol on driving performance are widely acknowledged, studies of the effects of alcohol impairment on driving performance and particularly on the control system of Chinese adults are rare. This study attempts to evaluate the effects of alcohol on the driving performance of Chinese adults using a driving simulator. METHOD: A double-blind experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of alcohol impairment on the driving performance of 52 Chinese participants using a driving simulator...

BACKGROUND: Alcohol related hospital attendances are a potentially avoidable burden on emergency departments (EDs). Understanding the number and type of patients attending EDs with alcohol intoxication is important in estimating the workload and cost implications. We used best practice from previous studies to establish the prevalence of adult alcohol related ED attendances and estimate the costs of clinical management and subsequent health service use. METHODS: The setting was a large inner city ED in northeast England, UK...

BACKGROUND: Statistics show an increasing proportion of alcohol and drug use in drivers in more recent times throughout the world. It has been found that among the various human factors, alcohol consumption, using drugs and subsequent driving on the roads are major risk factors. Traffic regulations in India penalises drivers who drive beyond permissible alcohol limit of 30 mg%. Consumption of psychoactive drugs such as opioid, cannabis and benzodiazepines has been reported mainly among youngsters...

BACKGROUND: Subjective responses (SRs) to alcohol have been implicated in alcoholism etiology, yet less is known about the latent factor structure of alcohol responses. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure of SR using a battery of self-report measures during a controlled alcohol challenge. METHODS: Nontreatment seeking drinkers (N = 242) completed an intravenous alcohol challenge including the following SR measures: Biphasic Alcohol Effects Scale, Subjective High Assessment Scale, Profile of Mood States, Alcohol Urge Questionnaire, and single items assessing alcohol "Liking" and "Wanting...

Objective: Psychiatric hospitals are confronted with high rates of psychiatric emergencies. There are, however, only few investigations that focus on psychiatric emergency care in German psychiatric hospitals, their supply structures and diagnostic and treatment standards. The aim of the survey was a systematic acquisition of the diagnostic and therapeutic approach in treating psychiatric emergencies in German psychiatric hospitals. Methods: We conducted a survey in psychiatric hospitals throughout Germany...

BACKGROUND: Many patients seeking emergency care are under the influence of alcohol, which in many cases implies a differential diagnostic problem. For this reason early objective alcohol screening is of importance not to falsely assign the medical condition to intake of alcohol and thus secure a correct medical assessment. OBJECTIVE: At two emergency departments, demonstrate the feasibility of accurate breath alcohol testing in emergency patients with different levels of cooperation...

BACKGROUND: I.v. 0.9% sodium chloride (normal saline) is frequently used to treat ED patients with acute alcohol intoxication despite the lack of evidence for its efficacy. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to compare treatment with i.v. normal saline and observation with observation alone in ED patients with acute alcohol intoxication. METHODS: A single-blind, randomised, controlled trial was conducted to compare a single bolus of 20 mL/kg i.v. normal saline plus observation with observation alone...

Normally, bars and restaurants are the preferred locations for drinking. Therefore, there is concern that the roads in bar and restaurant areas could have a higher probability of drink-drivers and alcohol-related road crashes. Many studies have been conducted to model the association between drinking locations and the prevalence of drink-driving, so that cost-effective enforcement strategies can be developed to combat drink-driving. In this study, a cluster analysis approach was applied to model the spatial-temporal variation of drink-driving distribution in Hong Kong...

BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young adults are frequent users of alcohol. Younger patients may be more sensitive to the effects of alcohol than their adult counterparts, and toxicity has been known to occur at lower doses. Respiratory depression is a serious adverse effect of alcohol intoxication; however, current monitoring practices may not adequately detect respiratory depression. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to determine the frequency of hypoventilation as measured by capnography among adolescents with acute alcohol intoxication...

As the first field study of perceived behavioral control (PBC) to assess alcohol consumption with a physiological measure (i.e., blood alcohol content; BAC), the research examined the impact of intoxication on alcohol-specific PBC (APBC). In total, 665 passersby were recruited into the study at several late-night drinking locations near a large university campus. After answering questions regarding personal demographics and APBC, participants were administered a breath alcohol test (Lifeloc FC-20; ±.005mL/L)...

BACKGROUND: Severe obesity remains the leading public health concern of the industrialized world, with bariatric surgery as the only current effective enduring treatment. In addition to gastric bypass, gastric banding and sleeve gastrectomy have emerged as viable treatment options for the severely obese. Occasionally, poor postoperative psychological adjustment has been reported. It has been previously demonstrated that breath alcohol content (BAC) levels and time to sober were increased in postoperative gastric bypass patients...

BACKGROUND: Contextual memory, or memory for source details, is an important aspect of episodic memory and has been implicated in alcohol-induced fragmentary blackouts (FBs). Little is known, however, about how neural functioning during contextual memory processes may differ between individuals with and without a history of FB. This study examined whether neural activation during a contextual memory task differed by history of FB and acute alcohol consumption. METHODS: Twenty-four matched individuals with (FB+; n = 12) and without (FB-; n = 12) a history of FBs were recruited from a longitudinal study of alcohol use and behavioral risks and completed a laboratory beverage challenge followed by 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions under no alcohol and alcohol (breath alcohol concentration = 0...

BACKGROUND: Acute alcohol intoxication is a frequent cause of emergency department (ED) visits. Evaluating a patient's alcohol intoxication is commonly based on both a physical examination and determination of blood alcohol concentration (BAC). OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of using a last-generation infrared breath analyzer as a non-invasive and rapid screening tool for alcohol intoxication in the ED. METHODS: Adult patients suspected of acute alcohol intoxication were prospectively enrolled over 10 days...

This case report describes the police investigation of a road-traffic accident involving a collision at night (01.00 am) between a car and a truck in which a passenger in the car was killed. The driver of the truck was found responsible for the crash although a roadside breath-alcohol test was negative (<0.1 mg/L breath or 20 mg/100 mL blood). Because of injuries sustained in the crash, the female driver of the car was not breath-tested at the time but was transported to a local hospital for emergency treatment...

One effective event-level index that can assist in identifying risky intoxication levels among college students is blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Despite widespread exposure to BAC information, doubt exists as to whether American college students can accurately estimate their own BAC level or drinking behaviors while intoxicated. This study assessed whether students can accurately guesstimate their BAC level and drinking behaviors used to estimate BAC (eBAC) while drinking in social college settings. Participants (N = 225; 56...

AIMS: To assess associations between measures of premises-level alcohol-related harm and risk factors for harm. METHODS: Thirty-two licensed premises with a history of on-premises violent assault were recruited. An environmental survey of the drinking context of each premises was undertaken. Levels of patron intoxication were assessed using a breathalyser and a visual assessment of customers at each premises. Premise-level violence was identified via routine police and hospital emergency department data...

BACKGROUND: Licensed premises offer a valuable point of intervention to reduce alcohol-related harm. OBJECTIVE: To describe the research design for an exploratory trial examining the feasibility and acceptability of a premises-level intervention designed to reduce severe intoxication and related disorder. The study also aims to assess the feasibility of a potential future large scale effectiveness trial and provide information on key trial design parameters including inclusion criteria, premises recruitment methods, strategies to implement the intervention and trial design, outcome measures, data collection methods and intra-cluster correlations...

Many patients in pre-hospital and emergency care are under the influence of alcohol. In addition, some of the more common pathological conditions can introduce a behaviour that can be mistaken to be related to alcohol inebriation. Fast quantitative determination of the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) in emergency patients facilitates triage and medical assessment, but shallow expirations performed by non-cooperative patients reduce the measurement reliability. The aim of this study was to evaluate if breath alcohol analysis in non-cooperative patients can be improved with use of simultaneous measurement of the expired carbon dioxide (CO(2))...

Breath alcohol analyzers are used to detect ethanol in motorists and others suspected of public intoxication. One concern is their ability to detect interfering substances that may falsely increase the ethanol reading. A 47-year-old-man was found in a public park, acting intoxicated. A breath analyzer test (Intoxilyzer 5000EN) measured 0.288 g/210 L breath ethanol, without an interferent noted. In the emergency department, the patient admitted to drinking HEET Gas-Line antifreeze, which contains 99% methanol...

The aim of the present study was to determine whether the alcohol biomarkers CDT, GGT, the biomarker gamma-CDT index and previous drunken driving contributed significantly to the prediction of DUI recidivism. The subjects consisted of two different samples of drivers, viz. drivers who were found to have a positive breath alcohol concentration during random breath testing surveys (n=237), and drunken drivers who were apprehended during ordinary police work (n=193). The drunken driving events were monitored using a data-base both retrospectively and prospectively...