Connect
Other causes of failed PEth test for alcohol abuse?
My daughter undergoes periodic peth testing for alchohol abuse. She fails regularly, although swears she drinks NOTHING. We have reason to believe she is telling the truth. Assuming she is indeed not drinking, is there a physical condition or ailment that might produce positive peth tests? She is 29, has enlarged lymph nodes, some kind of mysterious condition that gives her severe hives, etc. We are wondering if some type of autoinflammation or autoimmune condition might explain elevated levels. Our daughter is FINALLY discussing this with her regular doctor but if it is some unusual condition a specialist will be needed. The reason the peth test is required is due to a nasty custody dispute with lots of allegations of misconduct. I just want to know if there is ANYTHING other than alchohol consumption that can lead to positive test results. Any thoughts or knowledge of cases? Thanks for reading.
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Mental Health Support Group.
Connect
Multiple contacts with toolsd and others this week prompted me to want to post this as a public service…
Hopefully if you are visiting this board it is because you are being ask to take a PeTH test and not because you have already failed one. Either way you should understand these tests have the potential to ruin your life, career, or both so you should not be treating these lightly. If you just found out you failed a PeTH test (and are not doing the two-test method I am advocating), run in and take another on your own if your results are reasonably high (nominally 40+) and your time period is close to the original test (nominally less than 7-10 days). You may then be able to argue half-life decay of PeTH but the two test method is far better in my opinion.
PeTH tests are very sensitive to drinking and in my opinion to other things causing false positives that we cannot fully explain (yet). If you are ask/ordered to take a PeTH I would avoid doing so if possible. If you believe the hype – PeTH is produced as a byproduct of drinking (only) and has a predictable half-life decay that can be measured to tell how much you have been drinking. There are however a few papers that attempt to dispute both of these. My advice below is not reflecting these arguments but rather the inconsistent tests results several people I have personally talked to have seen with the USDTL tests. I will assume most of the people that may be reading this cannot simply avoid PeTH testing (which is probably something you are being forced to take).
Therefore, I strongly encourage you to take two PeTH tests, same day, different test facilities and/or methods. Yes this is pretty expensive ($200-$300) and a big pain in the rear but the day one of these tests come back against you – you will be so glad you did (at least then you have the best chance to dispute the results). If you do not do this the best you can hope for is to argue the decay rates of PeTH (which is not 100% consistent amongst people) using a later test but nothing speaks to a bad test as loudly as conflicting results from the same day.
With this as background, most people getting ordered to do PeTH tests are doing finger prick tests (as these are the cheapest and easiest to collect) and are processed on the backend by USDTL who makes the test. If this is your case, I would be particularly concerned as I have personally talked to several people getting highly questionable results from USDTL tests – in several cases backed by conflicting results from either USDTL tests at other test facilities or other tests (PeTHs not using USDTL or others). A few of us have some theories as to if this is an issue with the test or the collection methods – but bottom line is there are inconsistencies that are occurring at least with the USDTL tests. And make sure whoever is doing a USDTL test is opening a fresh test kit in front of you…
If you are facing a USDTL finger prick test, then spend some time to call other testing facilities in your area and try to find one that also administers the PeTH – even USDTL. I would suggest a better option is to find someone like Quest, Request-a-Test, or others that do their backend processing through LabCorp. This is a blood-drawn test collected in vials vs finger-prick cards. I believe but do not have the evidence to backup yet this test may be less sensitive to at least some of the false-positive producing factors with the USDTL test or to collection problems. This said, there is at least one person on this board that had fails and passes same day at USDTL just using different test facilities which may point to the test facility. I can only tell you I have not seen a fail at LabCorp being refuted by USDTL but have seen USDTL refuted by LabCorp and themselves. Therefore I would be going to a second test backed by LabCorp if ordered to do USDTL and I very well might do the opposite if ordered to do LabCorp tests.
I fully recognize not everyone can afford the time and money to do the second test. But I want to to reiterate my statement that these tests have the potential to ruin your life, career, or both so you should not be treating these lightly. Do what you can to protect yourself from false positives. Good luck to all those being forced into these tests. Until we can get them killed we tread in dangerous days of “witchcraft” being used to judge you in a system that is setup to defend such methodology for its own benefits.
I would humbly ask if you have any data clearly showing bad / conflicting PeTHs results refuted by any other tests you shoot me a PM. I am trying to collect such data to look for patterns and help others in their fights. Even if you just got a fail and legitimately were not drinking - I would be interested in the type of test it was and any thoughts you might have to the false positive cause if any.
The problem with the test is that we don’t know what we don’t know. Not enough research has been done on it.
We are clearly starting to see some patterns, which at the very least will make future studies possible, and poignant.
I also have autoimmune issues and am a posttransplant patient. I have REBV and my dad has GBS. I got a score of 125, and can't convince my docs that I would be totally unfunctional if that was alcohol-related.
Was the peth test whole blood or the finger prick blood spots?
It was blood draw with many other labs. My only thought is that I use hand sanitizer a lot and did before the test. I read somewhere if it is on your skin it could affect the test
If it was blood draw, less likely the hand sanitizer affected anything. Although it’s still a possibility.
A finger prick is more likely to be affected by the hand sanitizer, basically “site contamination”, and yes there has been some research done on that.
Just trying to think of anything.
Peth testing is simply not well enough understood to stand on its own. It seems to have value in context with EVERYTHING else, just like they say.
Unfortunately there simply aren’t any appropriate studies yet. I’m working on that...
There are plenty of expert opinions available saying just this, and even opinions that false positives exist. There just aren’t studies showing the precise reason why...
Conversely, there aren’t studies showing peth testing is immune to error, merely empty statements that it’s only possible to get a positive test if you’ve been drinking.
I do believe the statement that peth is only formed if ethyl alcohol is present is likely accurate. However, where that alcohol comes from is highly debatable. To have SOME present is NOT a foolproof indicator of drinking, and I even believe the dried blood spot method of blood collection allows for post collection synthesis of alcohol itself.
Dried blood spot collection of blood is fraught with all sorts of problems, as evidenced by finger prick blood sugar devices.
Contact me offline if you want more info.
Recently written by Dr Skipper.
https://www.centerforprofessionalrecovery.com/specificity-of-phosphatidylethanol-as-a-marker-for-alcoholic-beverage-consumption/