Diagnosis: Drug Abuse
• Ethanol may be produced by bacteria in the body after death, which results in spurious ethanol concentrations (up to 0.2 g/dL). By testing the vitreous fluid (a relatively sequestered site), one can differentiate postmortem production from ingestion before death. If ethanol is not detected in the vitreous fluid but the blood has a concentration of 0.09 g/dL, the blood ethanol is consistent with postmortem production. One would expect to find ethanol in the vitreous fluid if the blood concentration was due to ingestion before death.
