De. Heggli et al., SHOULD TRI-SIALO-TRANSFERRINS BE INCLUDED WHEN CALCULATING CARBOHYDRATE-DEFICIENT TRANSFERRIN FOR DIAGNOSING ELEVATED ALCOHOL INTAKE, Alcohol and alcoholism, 31(4), 1996, pp. 381-384
CDT (carbohydrate-deficient transferrin) has been identified as a spec
ific marker for chronically elevated alcohol consumption. We investiga
ted the sensitivity and accuracy of using relative concentrations of d
ifferent isotransferrins in serum for diagnosis of chronically elevate
d alcohol consumption. The different transferrin variants (isoforms) w
ere quantified by HPLC. Including the trisialo-transferrin fraction in
to the definition of %CDT resulted in an increased accuracy in the det
ection of chronically elevated alcohol intake in a study among 17 heav
y drinkers, 25 healthy individuals with moderate alcohol consumption a
nd nine total abstainers. The results also suggest that desialylation
of transferrin is a gradually continuing process, rather than one lead
ing to a single end-result separating asialo-, mono- and disialo-trans
ferrins from trisialo-, tetrasialo-, pentasialo- and higher sialo-tran
sferrins.