CARBOHYDRATE-DEFICIENT TRANSFERRIN IN ALCOHOL AND NONALCOHOL ABUSERS WITH LIVER-DISEASE

Carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) has been demonstrated to be a marker of prolonged heavy alcohol consumption. We compared this marke r with gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) in alcohol and nonalcohol abusers with liver disease. Our result s confirm that the sensitivity of CDT in alcoholics is high, although lower than that of GGT and MCV; however, the specificity of CDT was hi gher than that of the other two markers. This finding supports the not ion that CDT is only partially influenced by the presence of liver dam age, whereas increases of GGT and MCV are greatly affected by several factors, including liver damage and drugs. Moreover, we observed that the sensitivity and the specificity of CDT were greater than those of GGT and MCV in younger drinkers.