Elimination Rate and Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol in Korean Healthy Male Adults

Boram Lee; BeomWoo Nam; Jeong Seok Seo; Sungho Jang; Sangho Lee; Seung-Hwan Yi

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2015.54.4.427

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Lee, Nam, Seo, Jang, Lee, and Yi: Elimination Rate and Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol in Korean Healthy Male Adults

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2015; 54(4): 427-434.

Published online: 30 November 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2015.54.4.427

Elimination Rate and Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol in Korean Healthy Male Adults

Boram Lee, MD¹, BeomWoo Nam, MD, PhD¹, Jeong Seok Seo, MD, PhD¹, Sungho Jang, MD², Sangho Lee, MD², Seung-Hwan Yi, PhD²

¹Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Chungju Hospital, Chungju, Korea.

²Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju, Korea.

Address for correspondence: Jeong Seok Seo, MD, PhD. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Konkuk University, Chungju Hospital, 82 Gugwon-daero, Chungju 27376, Korea. Tel +82-43-840-8990, Fax +82-43-845-8470, sjs52632@hanmail.net

Received 1 July 2015 Revised 15 July 2015 Accepted 24 July 2015

Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study is to identify alcohol pharmacokinetics and to investigate the correlations between various factors for alcohol metabolism of healthy Korean males.

Methods

The 101 recruited volunteers were randomized into two groups as one group provided 0.35 mg/mL/kg and 0.7 mg/mL/kg, the other. Blood alcohol concentration was measured and analyzed in enzymatic methods eight times from drinking point.

Results

Alcohol elimination rate (β) was found to be -0.0083%/h for low dose group and -0.0157%/h for the high dose group. The results indicate discrepancy in the legal criteria of alcohol elimination rate (-0.008%/h). The measured alcohol pharmacokinetic properties were following : mean time to reach maximum alcohol concentration in blood was 30 minutes, absorption rate was 0.0197%, maximum alcohol concentration in blood was 0.4930%, and Area under the curve was 59.25. Also, alcohol elimination was not affected by age, smoking, total body water, drinking capacity, body mass index, blood cholesterol, body fat, and body fat ratio.

Conclusion

These results suggest that legal limitation could be adjusted in Korean males. Also the research should be extended including female and senior citizens for statistical significance of the research. These findings have contributed to our knowledge of the alcohol pharmacokinetics in Korean male.

Keywords: Blood alcohol concentration, Alcohol pharmacokinetics, Alcohol elimination rate

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

The effect of ingestion dose of alcohol for BAC and mean values of total BACs for time course. BAC : Blood alcohol concentration.

Fig. 2

Alcohol elimination rate (β value) for time section.

Table 1

Properties of pharmacokinetics of alcohol and the median

C_max (g/L/min) : Maximum serum concentration, T_max (min) : Time at which the C_max is observed, C_max/T_max : Absorption rate of alcohol, AUC : Area under the concentration curve

Table 2

r values (Widmark coefficient) for time course

Overall average (mean value) : 1.001±0.650

Table 3

The effects of various factors for BAC and statistical values

n : Number of the sample, SD : Standard differentiation, BMI : Body mass index, HBF : Human body fat, TBW : Total body water, FAT : Body fat percentage, TG : Triglyceirde, HDL : High density lipid, LDL : Low density lipid, BAC : Blood alcohol concentration, F/P : False positive

Table 4

Comparisons of factors that have an effect on β

Notes

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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