The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Due to copyright reasons, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. In order for the faculty to have time to process the order, it must be received by the faculty no later than 2 days prior to the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. Inquiries regarding the thesis after the public defence must be addressed to the candidate.
Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Senior Consultant Markus R. Baumgartner, University of Zürich, Switzerland
- Second opponent: Senior Consultant Jon Johnson, Vestre Viken Hospital Trust
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Marianne Klemp, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Emeritus Helge Waal, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Researcher Gudrun Høiseth, University of Oslo
Summary
Excessive use of alcohol may have many harmful effects in health, legal and social perspectives. Underreporting alcohol consumption is a well-known phenomenon, and objective biomarkers like ethyl glucuronide (EtG) are needed.
The aims of this thesis were to assess opportunities and limitations of the use of EtG as an alcohol biomarker in hair and nail.
When studying patients with decreased kidney function, we found higher hair EtG concentrations among patients with reduced kidney function compared to the healthy volunteers, even though the self-reported alcohol consumption did not differ between the two groups.
A comparison of hair and nail from alcohol dependent patients showed higher EtG concentrations in nails compared to hair. Several consecutive nail samples were also collected after inclusion in the study. EtG in nails disappeared faster than would have been expected from nail growth physiology.
We also compared two consecutive hair samples representing the same alcohol consumption period from alcohol dependent patients, and found that EtG concentrations might not be stable during hair growth. This supports a cautious interpretation of EtG results in distal hair segments.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.