Prevalence of post-mortem blood alcohol concentration among deaths in Serbia during 2011

The prevalence of alcohol in blood samples from medicolegal autopsies performed in the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Belgrade, in 2011, was studied. In total, 293 blood samples were analyzed for alcohol by headspace gas chromatography. The blood alcohol concentrations were evaluated according to sex, age, and cause of death. The blood alcohol concentrations were . 0.5 g/L in 23.9% of the cases; in suicides 22.4%, accidents 34.4% and homicides 25.0%. The largest proportion of high BACs were found in the sample from subjects killed in traffic accidents. These findings confirm that alcohol use is an important factor in many fatal accidents, suicides and cases of violent death.