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The study aims to detect the concentrations of ethanol and methanol in postmortem blood, vitreous humor, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid, and to create a database of the involvement of alcohol in postmortem cases. A total of 150 postmortem cases with different causes of death were enrolled for the study. Gas Chromatography-Headspace was employed for the quantitative determination of ethanol and methanol concentrations in the biological specimens. Out of 150 cases, 108 cases (72%) exhibited positive ethanol concentrations. The high prevalence of positive ethanol concentration, particularly in cases of road traffic accidents and hanging, indicated a significant amount of alcohol use prior to death and underscores the role of alcohol consumption in fatal incidents. Methanol was detected in only those cases that had a high ethanol concentration, which may be due to adulteration or contamination of methanol in the alcoholic beverages that the deceased consumed before death. The study highlighted that an alternative\/ complementary specimen to the blood should be considered to assess the alcohol concentration and to differentiate antemortem ingestion of alcohol from postmortem formation. The toxicological analysis of alcohol is important in understanding consumption patterns and in developing protocols and policies for preventing such cases.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/00258024261418791","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,6]],"date-time":"2026-02-06T18:00:37Z","timestamp":1770400837000},"page":"377-387","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Postmortem toxicology of alcohols: A cross-matrix study of ethanol and methanol in 150 cases from New Delhi, India"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"66","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-4537-7580","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Neha","family":"Afaria","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"A.K.","family":"Jaiswal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sudhir K.","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kulbhushan","family":"Prasad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4323\/rjlm.2015.211"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1139\/jpn.0333"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jat\/27.7.517"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jat\/14.5.305"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_2","unstructured":"World Health Organization World Health Organization. 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