Improved liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method for the determination of ethyl glucuronide concentrations in hair: applications to forensic cases.

Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) is a direct marker of ethanol consumption, and its assay in hair is an efficient tool for chronic alcoholism diagnosis. In 2012, the Society of Hair Testing proposed a new consensus for hair concentrations interpretation, strongly advising the use of analytical methods providing a limit of quantification of less than 3 pg/mg. The present work describes the optimization and validation of a previously developed liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method in order to comply with this recommendation. The concentration range of this improved method is from 3 to 1,000 pg/mg. Some cases are then described to illustrate the usefulness of hair EtG: a forensic post-mortem case and two cases of suspension of driving licences. Finally, hair samples of some teetotallers (n = 10) have been analyzed, which allowed neither to quantitate nor to detect any trace of EtG.