[ETG]

Hello, Dr. Bill. I am in a whirlwind, to say the least. I drank one glass of wine and five Michelob Ultras on Friday night, beginning at 7 pm and continuing until 10:30 p.m. I am a 115 pound female, 5'3, with a relatively high metabolism. The ETG test through Redwood was performed on Monday morning at 9 AM. Do you think that I will be clear? Please advise.

[DrBill100]

Hello, Dr. Bill. I am in a whirlwind, to say the least. I drank one glass of wine and five Michelob Ultras on Friday night, beginning at 7 pm and continuing until 10:30 p.m. I am a 115 pound female, 5'3, with a relatively high metabolism. The ETG test through Redwood was performed on Monday morning at 9 AM. Do you think that I will be clear? Please advise.

You are in the range of 57-60 hours, having consumed about 5-1/2 (Ultra=4.1% abv) standard drinks. Reviewing Wojcik you should be EtG clear but it's a close call.

Ref.

Wojcik & Hawthorne, 2007

[ETG]

Dr. Bill,
I am terrified; I just researched the wine imbibed and the alcohol content is 12.75. So, this glass in conjunction with the five Ultras puts me at 57-60 hours? I estimate the elapsed time from the last drink to testing time to be 59 to 60 hours. I drink a ton of coffee; will this contribute to the test? Ultimately, you think that I will be okay, Dr. Bill? Additionally, I rinse with Listerene mouth wash each morning. Ahh, I am so stressed! Any insight that you may provide will be fabulous. Thank you kindly, sir.

[ETG]

You are in the range of 57-60 hours, having consumed about 5-1/2 (Ultra=4.1% abv) standard drinks. Reviewing Wojcik you should be EtG clear but it's a close call.

Ref.

Wojcik & Hawthorne, 2007

Dr. Bill,
I am terrified; I just researched the wine imbibed and the alcohol content is 12.75. So, this glass in conjunction with the five Ultras puts me at 57-60 hours? I estimate the elapsed time from the last drink to testing time to be 59 to 60 hours. I drink a ton of coffee; will this contribute to the test? Ultimately, you think that I will be okay, Dr. Bill? Additionally, I rinse with Listerene mouth wash each morning. Ahh, I am so stressed! Any insight that you may provide will be fabulous. Thank you kindly, sir.

[DrBill100]

My time reference was to approx time from last drink until test. Not the clearance time required.

Never use Listerine the morning of a test. Listerine contains twice the amount of alcohol as the wine you listed.

Based on experience and a very limited amount of research in relation 5 or 6 drinks you should be OK. But it is impossible to compare due to lack of elimination research in that range of consumption.

There is never a guarantee with EtG testing. Extremely erratic

[ETG]

Dr. Bill--are ETG urine tests capable of picking up on gargling with Listerine mouthwash? I used the product approximately one hour before urinating for the test and am certain that I did not swallow any. Thank you for your assistance--TRULY!!

[DrBill100]

Dr. Bill--are ETG urine tests capable of picking up on gargling with Listerine mouthwash? I used the product approximately one hour before urinating for the test and am certain that I did not swallow any. Thank you for your assistance--TRULY!!!

EtG is produced from even small amounts of alcohol however for a very short period and elimination is within hours. Listerine can produce EtG but probably not in sufficient quantity to be detectable (normal usage assumed). Second, EtG trails alcohol elimination by 3-4 hours. So there probably won't be any detectable from the mouthwash. My recommendation to avoid Listerine the morning of the test is to err on the side of safety. Detection of small amounts of incidental exposure to alcohol is largely a matter of timing, so be very careful during the day prior to testing.

Ref. re: mouthwash

Reisfield, et al 2011

USDTL Test

Constantino, 2006

[ETG]

I am a participant in a court ordered drug program. But, as I am scheduled to abstain from the benzos that I was addicted too, I still suffer from severe anxiety.

I drank five Michelob Ultras and a large glass of wine on a Friday evening beginning at 7 or 8 pm continuing until 10 or 11 pm.

I tested on Monday at 9 am, in which case the program chose to lab me. The urine was sent to Redwood Toxicology and the results were negative after 57 to 60 hours of sobriety.

Thus, Dr. Bill was correct in his presumption of my urinalysis being clear from detectable EtG. Thank you, Dr. Bill!!

[youdipidipwedip]

ETG: do you know what the cutoff levels were for your test through Redwood? My PO facility also uses them for their tests and I'm curious as to what their cutoff levels are.

[DrBill100]

Redwood offers different cutoffs based on requirements of requesting agency. Usually and as with most labs, EtG is tested by a 2-step method. 1) Immunoassay (IA), usually a 500 cutoff. If the IA is negative then the test ends there. 2) In the event the IA is positive, then a confirmatory test usually LC/MS or LC/MS/MS is used with a cutoff of 100 ng or lower.

As a practical matter most EtG tests are 500 cutoff unless a positive or false positive (about 10%) is obtained at step-1 in which case a confirmatory test should be performed with the lower cutoff. However, some agencies in order to save money, simply accept results of the IA without confirmation.

As you read the elaborate descriptions provided by the testing labs, you will note great emphasis is placed on the sensitivity of the confirmatory test leading one to believe that all EtG testing is conducted by this more rigorous standard. That's the potential of the test not the practice. In fact, these highly sensitive instruments, LC/MS+, are seldom used. Only in the event of a positive at the IA level. Most tests end there >90%. At the level of IA samples can analyzed at over 200 samples per single run.

For specific info on RTL > LINK

[CR1MS0N]

My situation should be quite similar to this. I had 2 16 oz draft Switchback ales, a red bull and vodka, and a Johnny Walker Black on the rocks Friday ending at between midnight and 1 AM. I tested today (Monday) at 5 PM... I'm 5'11" / 165 / Male. My math puts that at 64-65 hours since ingestion. I drank a ton of water after the drinks as well as on Saturday and Sunday, took creatine and protein both weekend days, went to the gym and did 2.5 miles on the elliptical and treadmill both days, and sat in the sauna for 15 minutes and sweat my brains out both days as well. Does that mean I'm good also? I'm quite nervous... Any consolation would be appreciated.

[CR1MS0N]

My situation should be quite similar to this. I had 2 16 oz draft Switchback ales, a red bull and vodka, and a Johnny Walker Black on the rocks Friday ending at between midnight and 1 AM. I tested today (Monday) at 5 PM... I'm 5'11" / 165 / Male. My math puts that at 64-65 hours since ingestion. I drank a ton of water after the drinks as well as on Saturday and Sunday, took creatine and protein both weekend days, went to the gym and did 2.5 miles on the elliptical and treadmill both days, and sat in the sauna for 15 minutes and sweat my brains out both days as well. Does that mean I'm good also? I'm quite nervous... Any consolation would be appreciated.

To answer my own question, according to the link DrBill provided with his first response, I may be in the clear. I was probably in the high group, between the 48 and 72 hour period, in which not one person failed. That is unless my Red Bull Vodka or Johnny Walker Black were stronger than I think. I would think that those both were equivalent to two drinks each and the beers equal to 3 total. So I probably consumed 7 servings of alcohol in comparison to the 4.3 used in the high group of the study... Worst case scenario anyway.

[CR1MS0N]

I passed also.