• World J Emerg Med · Jan 2010

    Osmol gap method for the detection of diethylene glycol in human serum.

    • Michael G Holland, Jamie Nelsen, and Thomas G Rosano.
    • Department of Emergency Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University/ Upstate New York Poison Center, Syracuse, New York/ Department of Occupational Medicine, Glens Falls Hospital, Glens Falls, New York, U.S.A (Holland MG, Nelsen J); Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Albany Medical Center Hospital and College, Albany, New York, U.S.A (Rosano TG).
    • World J Emerg Med. 2010 Jan 1; 1 (2): 104-7.

    BackgroundMeasurement of the osmol gap (OG) is a technique that is used frequently in toxic alcohol poisonings (ethylene glycol (EG) and methanol) as a rapid means to estimate exposure, and can be performed in virtually all hospital laboratories. The value of the OG has not been previously evaluated for diethylene glycol (DEG) exposures. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of the OG in estimating DEG serum concentrations using the most common formula that is currently used for estimating methanol, ethanol, and ethylene glycol concentrations.MethodsThis was a controlled laboratory investigation using serum samples individually spiked with a known quantity of toxic alcohol compared to no toxic alcohol. Test samples were spiked with ethanol, DEG, EG, and methanol. Serum chemistries and osmolality and osmolarity were determined, and the OG was determined for each specimen.ResultsThe percent error of estimating DEG concentrations of 26.3% was similar to the mean percent error for estimating other alcohol concentrations, 30.5%±5.6% (P>0.05, 95% confidence interval 16.7%-44.3%).ConclusionsThe severity of metabolic effects associated with DEG and the need to appropriately determine rescue treatments mandate early detection of significant exposures for effective triage and patient management. Our results indicate that the percent error of the osmol gap method for estimating DEG concentration is similar to that of other toxic alcohols; this simple technique could be a valuable clinical tool, since quantitative DEG analysis is rarely available.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…