The pharmacokinetics of ethanol and its metabolites were examined in 10 young healthy women and men after 1-hr intravenous ethanol application of 7.8 mmol/kg body weight. Therefore, a new pharmacokinetic model takes into account Michaelis-Menten-elimination kinetics of ethanol as well as kinetics of acetaldehyde and acetate, which are defined by first order processes. The metabolite-model adequately describes the ethanol and acetate concentration courses. In fact, the observed ethanol concentrations are so close to the model-predicted values, that the metabolite-model allows an evaluation of half-life-times of acetaldehyde and acetate. The analyses of ethanol infusion studies showed, that there are no sex differences in parameters of ethanol elimination: Maximal elimination velocity Vmax was 3.41 +/- 0.61 mmol/l.h in females and 3.98 +/- 0.69 mmol/l.h in males. Michaelis-Menten-constant kM was 1.49 +/- 0.44 mmol/l and 1.69 +/- 0.88 mmol/l, respectively. In the female group, the volume of distribution of ethanol V1 was with 38.4 +/- 5.0 l significant smaller than in males with 50.5 +/- 3.5 l. In conclusion, the new metabolite-model can be used as a basis for the investigation of the entire alcohol metabolism.