Prenatal alcohol exposure prevalence as measured by direct ethanol metabolites in meconium in a Native American tribe of the southwest

Abstract

Background: While Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) represent a significant public health problem, Native Americans are underrepresented in population and targeted screening programs. Prior reports suggest that Native American tribal communities may have higher prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy; however, systematic examination using ethanol biomarkers is lacking. Methods: This study utilized data collected through the Navajo Birth Cohort Study (NBCS)-a birth cohort study of a Southwestern tribal community. Prevalence of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) was assessed by a battery of meconium biomarkers among 333 NBCS participants. Meconium samples were analyzed for nine individual fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) species, ethyl glucuronide (EtG), and ethyl sulfate (EtS) by LC-MS/MS.

Novel fast ultra‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) and extraction of ethylglucuronide in meconium samples

“…Imprecision (intra‐ and inter‐day) and accuracy values, evaluated at three different QC concentrations, were always lower than 12% (Table ). The mean analytical recovery obtained for the three different QC samples was always around 86% (Table ), in agreement with values previously reported (eg, from 71 to 104%) with an efficiency process of around 88.7%. and no significant ion suppression (range of values: 88%–107%).…”

Phosphatidylethanol in Maternal or Neonatal Blood to Detect Alcohol Exposure during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review

“…Besides other direct ethanol metabolites measured in the meconium (e.g., FAEEs, EtG and EtS [ 33 , 34 ]), in recent years, PEth has been proposed as a very promising biomarker of PAE, being measurable both in whole venous blood and DBS.…”

Validation of serotonin transporter mRNA as a quantitative biomarker of heavy drinking and its comparison to ethyl glucuronide/ethyl sulfate: A randomized, double‐blind, crossover trial

“…We supplemented EtG readings with EtS and calculated EtG/EtS ratios, as bacteria present in urine samples have been shown to generate EtG in vitro but not EtS (Mastrovito & Strathmann, 2020; Walsham & Sherwood, 2012), although it was unlikely that aseptically collected, prepared, and cryopreserved plasma samples would contain bacteria. A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric method was developed for the simultaneous determination of EtS and EtG in plasma (Bakhireva et al, 2019; Stefanak et al, 2020) and used for the present sample analysis. Deuterated internal standards were used for quantification.…”

“…Lowest limit of quantification (LLOQ) was set at 5 ng/ml for both analytes. Sample extraction was carried out as described in the earlier report (Bakhireva et al, 2019). Briefly, 10 μ l of plasma samples were extracted with 200 μ l of the internal standard working solution prepared in methanol.…”