A 61-year-old woman in Pittsburgh has become the very first victim of having a rare medical condition. She urinates alcohol even without having a drop of it. Reportedly, experts have diagnosed the lady with urinary auto-brewery syndrome or bladder fermentation syndrome. In this health condition, alcohol gets naturally brewed in the body. A yeast present in the bladder ferments sugar in the urine, which produces alcohol. The woman has requested to maintain secrecy. Currently, she has liver cirrhosis and diabetes, and experts have suggested a liver transplant to her. She went to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre Presbyterian Hospital for a liver transplant. But reiterated tests have had revealed alcohol-content in her urine.

In the case of an auto-brewery syndrome, the consumption of some carbohydrates is enough to make the person drunk. The person feels high even without drinking a drop of alcohol. The same prototype is applicable in this case. The lady kept on insisting that she is non-alcoholic. Her doctors describe firstly; they also surmised that she was hiding a habit of alcohol consumption. Although, the experts have noted that plasma screening leads to ethanol and urine exam marks ethyl sulfate and ethyl glucuronide. So they found the metabolites of ethanol negative, whereas urine exam resulting ethanol was positive. Apart from this, the patient has not revealed symptoms of intoxication during clinical visits despite her urine revealed greater levels of ethanol.

Another mystifying aspect was the occurrence of huge quantities of glucose in her urine or so-called hyperglycosuria. The doctors have noticed ample levels of budding yeast in her urine samples. Thus, they decided to see whether yeast is inhabiting in the bladder, which may ferment sugar and lead to ethanol generation. After several urine tests, the team eventually found that yeast has colonized in the bladder. The researchers have published the case study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday. The study noted the case reveals how simple it is to ignore signals revealing the presence of urinary auto-brewery. Thus, clinicians must be attentive and closely monitor medical records and lab results.