Assessment of the Threshold Concentration of Ethyl Glucuronide in Hair for Diagnosing Chronic Alcohol use in Women: A Study in a Belarusian Clinical Cohort

Razvodovsky YE* and Schuriberco AV

Aims: To determine the threshold concentration of Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) in hair for diagnosing chronic alcohol use in women. 

Methods: The study involved 15 alcohol-dependent women undergoing inpatient treatment for chronic alcohol use at the Grodno regional clinical center “Psychiatry-Narcology” (Belarus). The control group consisted of 15 moderately drinking representatives of the general population. The EtG level was assessed in the proximal 3-cm segment of scalp hair as per SoHT guidelines for alcohol marker detection. EtG concentration was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). 

Results: At a threshold concentration of 38 pg/mg, the sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) of the result were 93%, 92%, 98%, 90%, respectively. 

Conclusion: EtG is a reliable biochemical marker of chronic alcohol use in women. The relatively small sample size is a limitation and should be considered when interpreting the findings.

Keywords:

Published on: May 29, 2025 Pages: 1-3

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/2455-3484.000057
CrossMark Publons Harvard Library HOLLIS Search IT Semantic Scholar Get Citation Base Search Scilit OAI-PMH ResearchGate Academic Microsoft GrowKudos Universite de Paris UW Libraries SJSU King Library SJSU King Library NUS Library McGill DET KGL BIBLiOTEK JCU Discovery Universidad De Lima WorldCat VU on WorldCat