Acetaldehyde: its "disappearance" from human blood.

The reliability of acetaldehyde determination in human blood has often been questioned. Therefore, a new procedure has been worked out consisting of the addition of hydrochloric acid to decrease the disappearance of acetaldehyde, thus allowing the direct determination of acetaldehyde disappearance. The results suggested that the reason for the zero or minimal acetaldehyde concentrations reported by some authors was the consequence of not taking into account the "disappearance" of acetaldehyde from blood.