This article aims to place the phosphatidylethanol (PEth) blood test in the detection area of ethanol consumption causing alcohol-related disorders, to present the current methods of analysis, data on interpretation, some practical applications and the prospects of use of this biomarker. PEth is a minor metabolite of ethanol. Among nearly 50 PEth counterparts, PEth 16:0/18:1 is the most abundant. The interest that PEth brings compared to other biomarkers is the extended window of detection of ethanol consumptions. Indeed, it has a blood elimination half-life of approximately 5 days, which offers estimated alcohol consumption for a 21 to 28 days period. Thus, the detection of alcohol use disorders and withdrawal monitoring (systematically combined with urinary ethylglucuronide) in addictology and in liver pre- and post-transplantation are today its main routine applications. Nevertheless, additional data are still necessary to improve the interpretation of measured concentrations and to reach a consensus on interpretation cut-offs of blood PEth concentrations.
Keywords: alcohol dependence; clinical applications; dried blood spot (DBS); mass spectrometry; phosphatidylethanol.