Quantification of endogenous aliphatic alcohols in serum and urine.

The endogenous aliphatic alcohols ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol, isobutanol and isopentanol in serum and urine were measured by gas chromatography-mass fragmentography. Whereas for the higher-molecular-weight alcohols extraction with dichloromethane is used, ethanol is determined by direct injection of serum and urine. When zero is assigned to all values below the detection limits of the procedures (0.