The kinetics of ethanol transport from the blood to the skin surface are
incompletely understood. We present a mathematical model to predict the
transient exchange of ethanol across the skin while it is being absorbed
from the gut and eliminated from the body. The model simulates the
behavior of a commercial device that is used to estimate the blood alcohol
concentration (BAC). During the elimination phase, the stratum corneum
of the skin has a higher ethanol concentration than the blood. We studied
the effect of varying the maximum BAC and the absorption rate from the
gut on the relationship between BAC and equivalent concentration in the
gas phase above the skin. The results showed that the ethanol concentration
in the gas compartment always took longer to reach its maximum,
had a lower maximum, and had a slower apparent elimination rate than
the BAC. These effects increased as the maximum BAC increased. Our
model’s predictions are consistent with experimental data from the
literature. We performed a sensitivity analysis (using Latin hypercube
sampling) to identify and rank the importance of parameters. The analysis
showed that outputs were sensitive to solubility and diffusivity within the
stratum corneum, to stratum corneum thickness, and to the volume of gas
in the sampling chamber above the skin. We conclude that ethanol
transport through the skin is primarily governed by the washin and
washout of ethanol through the stratum corneum. The dynamics can be
highly variable from subject to subject because of variability in the
physical properties of the stratum corneum.
Figure
Equations
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Please cite https://www.imagwiki.nibib.nih.gov/physiome in any publication for which this software is used.
Model development and archiving support at https://www.imagwiki.nibib.nih.gov/physiome provided by the following grants: NIH U01HL122199 Analyzing the Cardiac Power Grid, 09/15/2015 - 05/31/2020, NIH/NIBIB BE08407 Software Integration, JSim and SBW 6/1/09-5/31/13; NIH/NHLBI T15 HL88516-01 Modeling for Heart, Lung and Blood: From Cell to Organ, 4/1/07-3/31/11; NSF BES-0506477 Adaptive Multi-Scale Model Simulation, 8/15/05-7/31/08; NIH/NHLBI R01 HL073598 Core 3: 3D Imaging and Computer Modeling of the Respiratory Tract, 9/1/04-8/31/09; as well as prior support from NIH/NCRR P41 RR01243 Simulation Resource in Circulatory Mass Transport and Exchange, 12/1/1980-11/30/01 and NIH/NIBIB R01 EB001973 JSim: A Simulation Analysis Platform, 3/1/02-2/28/07.