CARBOHYDRATE-DEFICIENT TRANSFERRIN AS A SCREENING MARKER FOR DRINKINGIN A GENERAL-HOSPITAL POPULATION

We investigated the usefulness of the laboratory marker of alcohol con sumption carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT) in 101 consecutively admitted patients in a surgical and internal medical ward of a hospit al in a rural wine-growing area. Four major aspects were considered: t he influence of liver disease, the method of expression of CDT values (relative % vs absolute units/l), level and pattern of alcohol consump tion and comparison with gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT). The results show that %CDT is a more valuable discriminating marker of high alcoh ol consumption than absolute CDT values and its usefulness in this res pect is independent of changes in serum total transferrin levels, as i n liver disease. Sensitivity and specificity of %CDT were 70 and 98% r espectively, compared with 65 and 83% respectively for GGT.