caa a22 4500 378897845 CHVBK 20180305123510.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161128e20040216xx s 000 0 eng 10.1515/CCLM.2004.011 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)gruyter-10.1515/CCLM.2004.011 Blood alcohol testing: comparison of the performance obtained with the different methods used in the Belgian external quality assessment schemes [Elektronische Daten] [Nicole Devleeschouwer, Jean Claude Libeer, Frank K. Martens, Hugo Neels, Marc Van Damme, Alain Verstraete, Marc Deveaux, Pierre E. Wallemacq] This study describes the performance of the different methods used for blood alcohol analysis by the Belgian laboratories participating in the external quality assessment scheme. The best performance was achieved by the gas chromatography (GC) and the enzymatic methods. The enzymatic methods are easier to use but more apparatus-dependent, whereas GC methods display higher precision, especially at concentrations near the critical legal limit of 0.5 g/l. The study highlights the need to introduce a methodology other than the chemical oxidation-based method of Casier, the sole legal method for forensic analyses in drinking-driving cases in Belgium. This method with poor intra-laboratory, inter-laboratory and linearity performances has definitely become obsolete. Even though GC clearly appears as the method of choice, mainly due to its higher specificity, the present study also shows the need for practical guidelines to improve the quality of GC alcohol analyses used in Belgium. Copyright © 2004 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG Medical equipment & techniques nationallicence Medical diagnosis nationallicence Diseases & disorders nationallicence Devleeschouwer Nicole aut Libeer Jean Claude aut Martens Frank K. aut Neels Hugo aut Damme Marc Van aut Verstraete Alain aut Deveaux Marc aut Wallemacq Pierre E. aut Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Walter de Gruyter 42/1(2004-02-16), 57-61 1434-6621 42:1<57 2004 42 cclm https://doi.org/10.1515/CCLM.2004.011 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1515/CCLM.2004.011 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Devleeschouwer Nicole aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Libeer Jean Claude aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Martens Frank K. aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Neels Hugo aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Damme Marc Van aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Verstraete Alain aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Deveaux Marc aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Wallemacq Pierre E. aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Walter de Gruyter 42/1(2004-02-16), 57-61 1434-6621 42:1<57 2004 42 cclm CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-gruyter