Category Archives: Blood Tests
Pennsylvania DUI Lawyer Justin McShane Wins an Unprecedented Decision Through hard work and a thorough review of the evidence, I was able to win an appeal of a motoristwrongly convicted for Pennsylvania DUI. The issue is that there is a difference between testing whole blood and non-whole blood. Simply put, testing non-whole blood results in [...]
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I have blogged a lot on Blood Testing for DUI and specifically Gas Chromatography for alcohol (ETOH) or drugs of abuse testing used in DUI prosecutions. Some people ask: Justin, your posts are so hyper-technical, why do you post such detailed stuff? When you are facing a Pennsylvania DUI, possible consequences include jail time, [...]
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Personal bias is bad, but analytical bias spells disaster in DUI BAC and Drugs of Abuse testing
March 17, 2010 by Justin McShane
All analytical devices are subject to analytical drift. Analytical drift occurs during as a result of just good old fashioned use or over time even with a lack of use. As the machine is used time and time again, it will become less precise and/or less accurate. Accuracy is characterized by large standard deviation with [...]
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In analytical chemistry for ETOH and Drugs of Abuse determination, it is very true that the matrix is all around us but truly is ignored
March 15, 2010 by Justin McShane
Keanu Reeves in the movie The Matrix noted that the matrix is all around us, you just haven’t chosen to see it. He had no idea that his statement would hold true in analytical testing for ETOH and drugs of abuse testing in DUI prosecution as well. The matrix is the substrate form which we [...]
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The Carryover Effect: Lack of Blanks between tests leads to false positive or inflated BAC results
March 3, 2010 by Justin McShane
Imagine. You go into your doctor’s office for a routine physical. As part of that routine physical, the doctor takes your blood. You come back two weeks later where the doctor delivers the single worst sentence you have ever heard in your life: “I’m sorry but you have cancer.” Then comes ever worse news from [...]
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One of the unsung or rather unknown important aspects in any reported BAC result is the calibration curve. It is not a curve but must be a line. It is known as analytical linearity. it is part of the three limits: Limit of Detection (I blogged on this at Underage Drinking and DUI in Pennsylvania: LOD [...]
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Crimping a Headspace Vial in Gas Chromatography: How not putting the “lid on the jar” can lead to disaster in a DUI case
December 14, 2009 by Justin McShane
As mentioned in an earlier post, there are many potential sources for error when it comes to Blood Alcohol Testing for DUI. This is very important in blood-based DUI cases where the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is reported because many of the prosecutors I have faced erroneously believe that these blood test results are infallible in [...]
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The Problem with Drug Recognition Expert and Why it is Designed for Failure
December 12, 2009 by Justin McShane
When people think of DUI, they often think of Drunk Driving meaning drinking too much alcohol. There is, of course, another form of DUI that is referred to as DUID or Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, both legal prescription drugs and illegal drugs. As such, it now becomes very important for DUI Lawyers to [...]
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On the origin of Species-Why do we use Gray Tubes for Forensic Blood Analysis for BAC
December 1, 2009 by Justin McShane
A colleague of mine from Colorado asked a very good question: Why on Earth do we use Gray tube tops for forensic blood analysis to determine Blood Alcohol Content for ETOH (drinking alcohol)? The answer is evolution or really "re-purposing". It got me to thinking… On the 24th day of November 1859, [...]
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Gas Chromatography and why is it is so important to Pennsylvania DUI arrests
November 22, 2009 by Justin McShane
First off what is Chromatography? Chromatography is strictly and simply speaking "separation science". It is the study of how an analyst can take a complex matrix (compound) and separate it out into its component parts. It is a relatively "new" form of analytical chemistry in that the first true use of modern chromatography is usually [...]
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