[Influence of asthma inhalers on a breath alcohol test].

Background: People and authorities are worried about interferences in breath alcohol measurements. The influence of different inhalers on breath alcohol tests is analysed in this paper.

Patients And Method: We included 60 patients treated with different inhalers. They underwent a breath alcohol test before treatment and 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 min after it.

Results: Every medication led to positive readings within the first minutes of its administration. However, all values reached zero at 10 min. Patients administered higher doses and those who did not use a spacer device were found to have higher reading values.

Conclusions: Asthma inhalers, including those without alcohol contents, lead to positive readings of breath alcohol measuring devices within the first minutes. However, these interferences are no longer detected at 10 min.