SIGNIFICANCE OF BIOLOGICAL MARKERS OF ALCOHOL-ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM

Biological alcohol markers give the possibility of an objective detect ion of alcohol abuse, independent from informations on consumption. Th ey are especially suited for screening, (early) diagnosis, and differe ntial diagnosis and for monitoring of relapse after treatment. A short review presents diagnostic significance and value of different alcoho lism markers. Conventional state markers as gamma-GT, GOT/GPT (resp. A ST/ALT, partat-Amino-Transferase/Alanin-Aminotransferase), MCV (mean c orpuscular volume) and especially CDT (carbohydrate deficient transfer rin) as a new marker reveal the highest practical relevance for the di agnosis of a surreptitious and chronic alcohol consumption resp. abuse . CDT is elevated after a daily alcohol consumption of at least 50-60 g over 2-3 weeks, gamma-GT rises are typical after 4-6 weeks and MCV a fter 2-3 months. Elevated levels of methanol as well as isopropanol ar e characteristic for long time phases of alcoholization resp, alcohol abuse. In general the diagnostic specificity and sensitivity is higher in alcoholics than in unselected populations. The combined evaluation of various parameters with different pathobiogenesis elevates specifi city, sensitivity and diagnostic efficacy and enables estimations of d ifferent patterns of alcohol abuse. CDT has an unprecedented high spec ificity of at feast 90% and is especially suited for differential diag nosis of alcoholic and nonalcoholic diseases.